All right, it is six o'clock, so we will call this meeting uh Tuesday, March 17th, 2026 meeting to order.

We will start with roll call.

Christine.

Here.

Payne.

Here.

Wigderson.

Here.

Piper.

Here.

Van Trieste.

Wells is absent.

Manion?

Here.

Moltsen.

Oh, here, sorry.

Wu Tesca.

Anderson.

Here.

Halvin Slavin.

Here non-voting.

Matthews?

Here.

Dean Lemke?

Here.

Rick Lemke?

Here.

Camacho.

Here.

All right.

So other than Jack Wells, we do have a quorum.

He is out of town, so he did have an excuse.

Absence.

We'll move on to the Pledge of Allegiance.

And this will be led by Maxwell Oberman from Troop 159.

You can come on up.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible, put in liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Maxwell.

All right.

Next up is public comment.

We have several public comments.

We're going to start with Monica Paws.

And if you can come up to the microphone, you'll have three minutes.

Please state your name and your address.

My name is Monica Pause, and I reside at 905 Oxford Road in the City of Waukesha.

I just wanted to express my appreciation for seeing the funding for the raising of the property located at 137 and 139 East Park Avenue included in tonight's agenda.

I first brought concerns about this property which uh to my father's alderman back in June of 2022.

After numerous emails over the years, I eventually reached out to the city attorney's office in January of 25 seeking some assistance.

I was very glad to see that on March 10th of this year, Judge Melvin signed an order enforcing the city of Waukesha's orders to raise the building.

While this process has taken nearly four years to, I'm hopeful that the funding will be approved so that the property can finally be removed.

My father lives directly next door to this property, so I'd like to be able to have him enjoy his retirement sitting outside without seeing this I Sorber property, which had multiple times had anywhere up to 10 vehicles parked that were non-moving, um, windows broken, doors it was just an awful mess.

So I'm hopeful that the funding will be approved so that the property can be removed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh next up, John Thomas.

Good evening, all John Thomas, 134 Douglas Avenue.

This is a subject I brought up last fall, and I was told no, it's too late, it can't be done, and it's too expensive.

Bike lanes.

And I'm hoping that the funding will be made available, that the faded out disgusting, almost gone bike lanes can be repainted this spring so they can actually function and do some good.

Because uh many of the bike lanes in our city are there's nothing left.

So far, I don't think anybody on a bike has been hit yet.

But boy, we hope there's not a first time.

And uh, if you're gonna get rid of the bike lanes, then let's remove the signage and uh make them so they can't be seen anymore because you shouldn't have faded faded out, faded away bike lanes.

And I thank you.

Thank you.

Uh next up we have Lisa Saul good evening, Lisa Salb 434 Madison Street.

I am here to object to the proposed conservation easement, revision three for the 130 Delafield Street, uh, which is within the national register boundary of the Senator William Blair House.

Uh last year the city tried to decrease that boundary, but it was not successful at the national level when the keeper of the National Register of Historic Places returned it.

They said the information, they said, quote, the information provided does not adequately adequately document a lack of integrity of the parcel that is proposed to be removed from the listed parcel, unquote.

Therefore, city staff needs to stop telling you that 130 Delafield Street does not have any intact historic resources related to the Blair House.

That is misleading.

The agenda cover letter states that the state historic preservation office found, they did find that the view from the Blair House contributes to its historic significance.

So staff is suggesting one to uh have a view to a historic feature, and two that it is from the period of significance, which is 1877 to 1880.

These are both rather restrictive.

Um I would like to note that uh the 1875 uh First Baptist Church, um, even though it was mentioned, um, a much older church steeple, the St.

Matthias Episcopal Church on the other side of town is not mentioned.

Other buildings that are not mentioned that are within the period of significance include uh 357 West Broadway, 920 Clinton Street, and 235 West Main Street.

Uh the main one that I want you to hear though is the proposed conservation easement fails to protect the view of William Blair's only remaining business at 139 East North Street, the Waukesha County Manufacturing Company, Waukeshaw Motor Building.

It was constructed circa 1866 and utilized for wool storage by the Waukesha County Manufacturing Company, which was William Blair's company and which he was president to until 1880.

Um it was up okay, thank you.

Um I would also like to note then that this conservation easement does not include the views of the other properties that are in the Madison Street Historic District.

Uh one I can bring up right away is 517 Madison Street, the Eli Hoos uh Enos House.

Its view goes the other direction towards St.

Matthias.

It does not go towards the Baptist Church, so that would be removing their historic view as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh next up I have uh Melissa Gonzalez.

Hi, um, my name is Melissa Gonzalez, and I live at 161 Randall Street.

Um, I'm also up here uh to talk about the conservation easement.

Um I understand that this conservation easement meets uh statutory requirements and has been approved by the state historic preservation office.

However, if uh if we protect only one view, are we truly preserving the historic context of the Blair House and the Madison Street Historic District?

I'm concerned that it only protects a single view rather than considering the border district.

Um my understanding is that the National Register recognizes the importance of context and setting for historic properties, not just isolated sight lines.

If the intent is full preservation, shouldn't all contributing views be considered, not just one.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, next up we have approval of the minutes from the March 3rd, 2026 meeting.

Is there a motion?

Uh Alder Person Chris.

Thank you.

I make a motion to approve minutes from the last meeting.

Thank you.

There's a motion.

Is there a second?

Alder Person Molson.

Second.

All right.

Then all those and is there any discussion?

No.

All right.

All those in favor, please vote when it is before you.

Camacho I.

Matthew's aye.

Christina.

Would you say an aye?

Rick Wompki, aye.

Watuska, aye.

All right.

That passes unanimously.

Moving on to consent agenda.

Are there any items to be removed from consent agenda?

No.

All right, then we will move on to new business.

I did want to make one note.

We have moved up the uh reckless driving uh ordinance discussion up uh to accommodate the city attorney who is unfortunately slightly ill.

So just as a note, we will doing be doing that at the top of new business today.

So we're actually going to start with the resolution to vacate a portion of West Avenue right of way in connection with the sale of surplus property at 223 Southwest Avenue.

Brian.

Thank you, and uh thank you for moving the item up in the agenda.

I will be leaving as soon as my uh three items are done here.

There won't be a city attorney report tonight.

Okay, first of all, uh you'll recall 223 Southwest Avenue is the property on which a former water utility building sits.

Uh we agreed some time ago that we were going to sell it.

We got an offer um, and uh our noteworthy local artist Carmen uh was the successful bidder on that, and so we are this is a part of the process of preparing that property for sale to her.

Um the building sits at the edge of the property line, and a part of it overlaps onto the right of way a little bit.

And that didn't matter when both the city or the city owned both the right of way and the parcel, but it does matter when those get separated because you can't have a building that sits across a property line.

So we decided that we were going to uh remove that part of the building from the right of way so that it could be joined with the rest of the property and sold to Carmen that way.

So this is the uh the final step in doing that.

Uh you may recall a few meetings ago we introduced this resolution.

The statute says that it has to be uh at least introduced at least 40 days before a final action is taken on it.

And in that interim period, the resolution has to be published in the local paper as a legal notice three times.

So more than 40 days have elapsed since the introduction of the resolution, and the resolution was published in the Freeman uh the necessary number of times and in compliance with uh the rules for public notices.

We've got the affidavit of publication here, so that's all taken care of.

Uh all that needs to be done is tonight to pass this resolution so that we can go ahead and finalize a CSM, joining the parcels together, and then having a closing and conveying the property to the buyer.

So we are just asking for your um final approval of the resolution tonight.

All right.

Is there any discussion or questions for Brian?

All right, is there a motion?

Uh Alder Person Manion.

I'll make a motion to approve the resolution as presented.

Okay, Allerman Payne.

Second.

All right, please vote when it is before you.

Camacho, aye.

Matthews, aye.

Watuska aye.

All right.

That uh motion passes 12 to 1.

Thank you.

Moving on to authorization for recording of historic preservation conservation easement against 130 Delafield Street.

Brian?

Uh this is actually in a similar vein.

This is a procedural step that needs to take place before the city-owned property across the street from here can be sold.

Um, as you know, the plan commission and the council have already declared its surplus and have authorized its sale.

Um you heard in the public comment about the city's efforts to have that southerly end of the parking lot removed from the National Register of Historic Places, which was denied, and that denial is the reason why we are we have to do this step tonight, because there's a uh state statute that says that if a city owns a property that has historical significance, then before it can convey the property, there has to be a conservation easement that's negotiated with the state historic preservation office and then imposed on the property before it can be sold.

So we have been in negotiations with the SHIPO, the Historic Preservation Office for quite a while and have had a number of back and forth negotiations about the content of the conservation easement.

The thing that's being conserved here is the view from the top of the hill from the Blair House.

I guess the city also has a conservation easement on the Blair House itself, because it clearly had historical significance when it was conveyed to the Solbs.

So as a condition of that conveyance, we had to record a conservation easement.

What this document does that SHIPO agreed to sign off on is to restrict construction and particularly the height of any improvements within the far southerly end of the parking lot, so that a view from the top of the hill at the Blair House is preserved, and it's it's not a preservation of the complete view, 360 degrees from the top of the hill, but this is what SHIPO was satisfied would preserve the essential elements of that view from the top of the hill.

So as a prerequisite to completing the transaction to sell the property, we need to impose this easement.

Now, what we're doing tonight is we're not asking for you to critique the content of the easement, because as I say, we've been through extensive negotiations with SHIPO, and this is what finally satisfied them.

We feel as though we've had to jump through quite a few hoops along the way to satisfy SHIPO, and uh this is what they were finally satisfied with.

What's before you tonight then is what we're requesting is that you authorize the recording of this easement against the property so that it knocks down, it checks one more box on the list of things that need to be done before the property can be conveyed.

All right.

Are there any questions or discussion?

Yes, Alder Person Matthews.

Just a quick quick, can you clarify?

You said that this is designating just a certain portion of it to restrict the height on that particular part to block or to allow a parcel view, and the rest of the view would be limited.

Is that clarifying that?

Well, if you um look at the attachment to the agenda, uh you'll see the the conservation easement has a map attached to it, and that is the survey map that we had prepared, which designates an area at that southerly end of the parcel in which there are restrictions on what can be built there.

And then if you refer to the body of the easement itself.

Um in the numbered paragraph number one near the bottom of the first page.

Um building or structure may be constructed within the easement area that's indicated on the map by crosshatching that exceeds 845 feet in elevation at its highest point.

And obviously, that's not 845 feet from ground level, that's 845 feet above sea level.

So that's approximately it's very close to the elevation of the boundary line between the two properties, between the city property at the bottom of the hill and the Blair House property at the top of the hill.

So it would prohibit the construction of anything that would appear above the hill when you're looking from the house to the the southeast and the east from there.

Um I thought that might be a little confusing to put it in terms of 845 feet, but that is the way that uh construction plans are drawn.

I I thought that might be a little confusing to put it in terms of 845 feet, but that is the way that uh construction plans are drawn.

That's the way surveyors and and contractors speak in those terms.

So this is what they will recognize.

Um it makes exceptions for utility poles, light poles, sign poles, flag poles, and other structures that do not materially block vision, which is similar to utility poles that are already present uh in the area and on the corner there, and any natural uh features, landscaping such as trees, shrubbery, or other plantings, uh, because obviously there are already plenty of those there, uh, and temporary structures that might be in place for construction upon the remainder of the parcel.

So we tried to accommodate everybody's interests here, and I think the folks at SHIPO recognize that there is a balance between the interests of the property owners at the top of the hill and the interest of the city in having the parcel developed, and that's what they agreed to here as a uh a compromise.

Great.

Are there any other questions or discussion?

Alderman Payne.

Thank you.

Um I received some calls from people up in the area on Madison Street surrounding area that this would be uh it would affect put it that way, um, their view of the downtown.

All right.

Um they're not in support of doing this because it limits the view.

Um I personally don't think that we should be doing anything at all with with this because it's still in litigation.

Okay, and I don't think anything should be done until that is settled, and and then whatever happens, then we can take up other things for consideration.

But right now I don't feel that it's it's appropriate to do it.

And uh when this building was put up, I used to sit on my deck and see all the downtown.

They put up this building, I can't see any of downtown.

So I know what they're they're thinking, and and they're right, you're not gonna see anything.

So any other questions, discussion?

Yeah, Alder Person Van Trieste.

So is this to is this to suspend the historic uh easement?

Is that what we're talking about here?

Suspend it right now since it still is lit in litigation.

No, there's there's no need to take the litigation into account.

This is something that's going to have to be done if the property is going to be sold, no matter what.

And it doesn't matter what the property would be sold for, whether it's the proposal that's on the table from the developer that's interested in purchasing it now, or uh some successor down the road.

Uh the easement is in favor of the city.

In other words, it's the city that can enforce this, and by the same token, the city can revoke it and modify it if necessary down the road.

Um we know that the objection is really to the proposed apartment development.

It's not so much an objection to a loss of view from the top of the hill.

And we think that please no comments from the audience, thank you.

Sorry, Brian.

We we would like you to uh keep the focus on what we're doing here.

You've already voted to allow the sale of the property, it's already been declared surplus, and this is something that is necessary in order to sell the property because it was that southerly end was not removed from the National Register of Historic Places.

That's why we have to do this.

So follow-up if I I could.

So the a yes vote tonight will preserve that easement, that 845 uh not to exceed that.

Yes.

Uh a yes vote would allow us to record the easement against the property over at the register of deeds office, so it becomes a part of the land records pertaining to that property.

All right.

I'll make a motion.

Uh 66 or Section 66.111 subsection three subsection B as presented.

Okay.

Alderman Payne.

Okay.

Alderman Wateska.

Second.

Alderman Payne.

Thank you.

Another thing I might add is this particular developer that's looking at this property developed.

He just came to the plan commission and asked for a two-year extension.

So we don't know if this person or this company is ever going to develop that as they're presenting it.

So I think a lot of this is premature.

I think it needs to wait until they don't follow through.

They're gone for whatever reason.

And this person just got a two-year extension.

So we never know if those plans for those buildings that he's presenting are ever gonna ever gonna be.

It might be something totally different.

And we wouldn't need to do this because we don't know what the development would be.

Well, that's kind of a chicken egg thing, because if this doesn't get recorded against the property, then it can't be sold, and that developer will very likely say, okay, we can't buy the property, so we're we're leaving.

And I know that's what a lot of people would like to see, but we've already made a decision here that that's what we're moving forward with.

So again, I this is just a procedural step in doing what we've already agreed we were going to do.

Thank you.

Are any other discussion?

Alderman Lemke.

Well, I am sympathetic to the handful of people who don't want to have this building built.

We have to remember that we have a job to do for the entire city.

And this development is clearly in favor and to the benefit of the entire city.

Uh most of us have agreed upon that before.

So let's move on and get this thing done.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other discussion?

All right, then there is a motion on the floor to authorize the recording of historic preservation conservation easement against 130 Delafield Street as required by Wisconsin Statute 66.111, subsection three, subsection B.

Please vote when it is before you.

Camacho, no.

Matthews Nay.

All right.

That motion does pass 9 to 4.

Moving along.

Uh so for those who are uh did not note earlier, we are moving up uh item understanding committees item CA under the ordinance and licensing committee report.

Um we are going to move that up.

That's uh item 26-03071 on page six.

Brian, I will turn it over to you.

Thank you.

This is a proposal that uh is a result of a referral from Alderman Steve Van Traste.

Um, and it addresses uh in a way reckless driving.

Um the city to take advantage of a provision in state law that allows the impounding of vehicles that are used in the commission of reckless driving.

And I want to make clear that this is not the only penalty for reckless driving.

So I thought I would go through what the penalties are under uh the state traffic code.

Um first of all, there's there's varying levels of what the penalties are depending upon the severity of the uh the infraction uh for a first violation if the negligent operation of a vehicle results in endangering the safety of another person, it's a civil forfeiture of between 50 and 400.

But at the far end of the scale, uh if somebody causes great bodily harm to another by negligent operation of a vehicle, which means a substantial risk of death, permanent disfigurement, permanent or protracted loss, or impairment of a body part or other serious bodily injury, that is a class H felony, up to ten thousand dollars fine and six years in prison.

So understand that those are the primary penalties for uh violation of the reckless driving statute 34662.

Now, on top of that, the provision in state law allows for the impounding of the vehicle that was used in the commission of it.

And it's similar to how a weapon may be impounded after the commission of a crime with a weapon.

It's simply to take that vehicle away so that it's not able to be used as a tool of reckless driving.

So what's before you tonight on Alderman Van Trieste's referral is the adoption of Wisconsin statutes section 349.115, which says that law enforcement officers may, in their discretion, impound any vehicle used in the commission of reckless driving as defined under 3462, which is what I was just quoting from.

Or a local ordinance in strict conformity therewith when a citation is issued or an arrest is made for the offense.

Now this made the news last year, and I think this is probably how it came to everyone's attention in that formerly the state law said that the impounding could only take place if it was the owner of the vehicle that committed the reckless driving and it was a second or subsequent offense.

The amendment that was made at the state was to remove those two conditions.

Now, if there is an arrest or a ticket issued for reckless driving, it's within the officer's discretion to have the vehicle impounded.

It does not have to be the owner of the vehicle that committed the offense, and it does not have to be a second or subsequent offense.

So it made it easier for the police officers to exercise their discretion to do that.

And uh I would stress that it is in the officer's discretion.

That is the way the statute and the proposed ordinance reads.

So it's dependent upon the circumstances.

The officer can make the call and say, okay, this this is the end of this, you are not getting this car back tonight.

Uh we are having it towed away and put into the impound yard.

Uh questions were asked about what happens if it's a stolen vehicle.

And you may have read in the ordinance that there's an express provision for that, that if a vehicle is impounded, the law enforcement officer has to make a reasonable effort to determine if the vehicle has been stolen, and then make an effort to contact the owner if the owner can be found and contacted, and then the city shall return to its owner a vehicle reported stolen and impounded without the payment of a fee or a charge.

But if it's not a stolen vehicle, then when the vehicle is impounded, then all outstanding fees and charges and fines and forfeitures in connection with that offense have to be paid before the vehicle will be released.

If none of that happens, if nobody steps up to claim it or pays the fees or whatever, uh then the disposition of the vehicle takes place under the same procedure for the disposal of abandoned vehicles under Section 34240 of the Wisconsin statutes, and there's a procedure that has to be followed there in an effort to make sure that somebody's vehicle is not uh disposed of before they've had a reasonable chance to uh reclaim it.

So I know that the police department is very much in favor of adopting this ordinance that would allow our officers to do that.

So we're asking you to consider that.

This is the second reading of the ordinance tonight.

It uh came up from Owen L with O and L's approval.

Um I believe uh Mr.

Van Trieste would like to at this point make a uh motion.

I move to uh suspend the third reading on this and and go ahead and and uh vote on it tonight for the second reading.

Okay, there is a motion to suspend the rules uh for the third reading of this ordinance.

Is there a second?

Uh Alder Person Manion.

I'll second the motion.

All right.

Any discussion on suspending the rules.

Note that this vote would be specifically to sus to skip the third reading and vote on this tonight.

This is not voting on the ordinance itself.

Alderperson Molson.

Could you state why you want to speed this up?

I mean, what's wrong with letting the public hear about this and speak if they want to?

Oh yeah.

Hold on.

I believe that uh if anybody was here to speak uh about this uh uh change in our ordinance that they'd probably be here tonight.

Um I just think it it uh it's been discussed within committee, and we're discussing it right now.

So are there any other comments specific to suspending the rules to skip the third reading?

Alderperson Lemke.

I agree that uh there's no need to wait.

Okay.

Any other comments or discussion?

All right, there is a motion and a second.

Again, this is just to suspend the rules.

Please vote when it is before you.

I'm sorry, could you please repeat the first and the secondary?

Uh yes.

So the first was uh Van Traste and then Manion was the second.

Thank you.

Camacho, aye.

Matthews, aye.

All right, that motion passes uh 12 to 1.

Uh now we are on to discussion of the ordinance itself.

Are there any comments, questions?

Yes, Alderperson Anderson.

Yes, it's excuse me.

Brian, I have a question, and maybe I don't understand completely, but if I'm suspected of reckless driving and my car is impounded, yet I fight it in Cork or whatever, and I plead not guilty and I win.

What happens?

Then the then there would not be any fine or forfeiture to pay, but there would still be the impoundment charges.

Um if we were using, for instance, an outside contractor like elders towing service, there would be a fee for that that would have to be paid to retrieve the vehicle.

But could I argue then that it shouldn't have ever been impounded because I was never guilty of the reckless driving?

Well, you know, that's the way um a lot of these cases play out.

Uh sometimes there will be an amendment of the charge.

There can be a lot of different uh circumstances that affect that.

Um but this ordinance, the way it's drafted, does not well let's see where we might insert something.

Uh subsection A says uh titled recovery of impounded vehicle.

The owner of the vehicle may recover an impounded vehicle after payment of reasonable costs of impounding, including towing and storing storage charges and payment of any outstanding fines or forfeitures unless the vehicle has been identified as stolen under subsection B.

Uh and upon such payment, the city shall return the vehicle to its owner.

This is the language that's virtually word for word from the state statute.

So the state statute does not uh make a provision for that.

Um it would be on the city to pay the fee then to get the car out of the impound.

Uh and that's typically a it's going to be a cost of uh it's gonna the cost is going to be on the defendant at that point, even if the charges are dismissed.

All right, I have Matthews Piper and then Lemke.

Do we know adoption?

You this is obviously a state statute.

Do we have any adoption uh any other municipalities around us that are have are following this?

I don't know about municipalities in the area, no.

Okay.

Any follow-ups?

No.

We know that this uh the push for this was driven by the city of Milwaukee.

And I would imagine that uh municipalities in Milwaukee County were probably also very interested in this.

Um the reckless driving is much more of an issue there.

Um we are seeing more and more of it occurring in Waukesha, and I know that the police department is concerned that we take steps to show how seriously we take that, and uh we don't want this to become epidemic in Waukeshaw uh the way it has been in some of the uh the other regions in the area.

But I don't know exactly how many others have adopted it now.

Alder Person Piper.

Brian just made my point for me.

So thank you, Brian.

I think this is a I strongly support this.

I think this is a tool that we need to provide the police department to not only um be a deterrent for activity like this in the city, but also send a strong message that if you do this in Waukeshaw, you're gonna get your car taken away, and there's consequences to bad actions.

So I'm a strong supporter of this because we have seen um unfortunately actions that we maybe actions occurring in Washington that maybe we didn't see 10 years ago or 20 years ago.

And that's just a function of just the times, and we need to make sure that we give our police department reasonable tools to prevent um things like this from occurring and provide a high level of deterrence.

So I'd ask the council support this evening.

Thank you.

Okay.

Alderman Lemke and then Chrisine.

I don't have a problem with impounding the vehicles used in reckless driving, but just my my thought is this.

It would take two years to get somebody to through the court system, and at $90 a day impound fee, their car is gone whether they're innocent or not.

So unless there's a provision in there where the where the innocent does not have to pay for their impound, I would be against it because then you're taking away my car and I'm innocent.

So Brian, if you can correct me if I'm wrong, if I'm with my numbers are approximately, I know in Wawatosa, they're 90 bucks a day.

Sure.

There's certainly the possibility that a car would be in impound for an extended period of time, no question.

Um I would suggest that if you wanted to address that issue and require uh the city to pay the fee if the defendant is ultimately found or the the charges are dismissed, or there's not a conviction that that would go in uh subsection A under recovery of impounded vehicle.

Uh it would be another exception that's added to the end of that section.

Um, remembering the seriousness of the offense of reckless driving, where it's going to involve uh a serious threat of harm to someone else or actual harm to someone else through the use of a motor vehicle.

Um the circumstances uh that's what the officer is going to take into account in deciding whether to impound the vehicle or not.

It's going to be a pretty serious event.

It's not just going to be reckless.

Uh in many cases, it's going to be tied to OWI.

Uh there may very well be injuries.

Uh, those are the kinds of factors that uh that the officer would take into account in making that decision.

Uh I see assistant chief Wagner is present tonight.

I think this would be a good opportunity for Tom to step up to the mic and give the PD's perspective on this.

Yes, welcome.

Thank you.

So this isn't a high frequency thing that happens here.

However, it is a good tool in the toolbox to have in these situations.

This might be more of a question for Brian, but you know, if this is going to be a city citation, that doesn't take that long in terms of being processed in terms of the resolution where those storage fees that you're talking about would take that long.

Um I guess my question would be on a criminal case.

I don't know if it it doesn't say it says a fine has to be paid in other fees that were incurred.

I don't know necessarily that that would have to go to conviction before you could get your car back.

Just what fees were imposed at the time, short of a citation.

I think they could still get their car back.

But well, that's right.

It there's no denying that it it could be quite a period of time.

Um, but yes, the condition of recovering it is just to pay the costs of impounding towing and storage and the payment of any outstanding fines or forfeitures.

So there would not be any fines or forfeitures until after there was a conviction.

So there is the possibility of an extended period after which the charges may be dismissed or the person is found not guilty.

Um alder person cuisine and then Molson.

Thank you.

This did happen to me and one of my cars in 1985, so I'm having it was a long time ago.

I wish I still own that Mustang, it was really nice.

But someone was using my car and was doing egregious things with my car at lunchtime, and I didn't know anything about it until several times later.

So I had several points that Alderman Piper made and uh Alderman Rickland made that is making me would like to add some subsection C, I think Attorney Running said.

But since the police on scene and supervisors on potential scene have some leeway on that, there's a difference between somebody that was, let's say, joyriding versus just playing did some serious damage to a vehicle.

I think that I'm reconsidering that, but I do uh tail end on what Alder McLemke said.

So because of that, we are giving the tools, and these tools are needed for our city police department just to help curb some things, make a deterrent, and actually prevent some of these cars getting back out and happening again.

So I'm supportive of this.

I'm thinking about what Alderman Lemke uh had to say.

So basically, Alderman Piper said mostly I wanted to say, but thank you.

Alder Person Molson.

Brian, I want to re-ask A.C.

Wagner's question.

When you I understand that list of things, you have to pay the impound fee, you got to pay your fine or whatever, and you might not know what your fine is until the end of the process.

But why can't you pay the impound fee at the beginning of the process, get your car back and still contest this for all that time?

Well, I think the idea, the whole thrust behind the statute is to keep the car out of the hands of the person.

You know, if it's uh if it was a stolen vehicle, then they can get it back right away without uh without a fee.

Well, because anyone that wanted to contest it would then have to wait weeks.

Yeah, it could be weeks, certainly.

It could be longer than that.

What would have to change in the statute to have you be able to get your car out in a more timely fashion?

Well, we could build an exception into the ordinance that like I say, tag it on the end of uh subsection A, where it it reads unless the vehicle has been identified under stolen under subsection B, or if the defendant is ultimately found not guilty or charges are dismissed, something along those lines.

Because I I kind of prefer the position where we make the owner or the driver, whoever pays the fine, pays the impound fee.

I want the person to pay the impound fee because they've gotten enough trouble to get you know cited over it, but I don't want them to have to wait weeks or months to get their car back.

What if it's some you know your roommate takes your car and now you can't go to work?

Yeah, well, you know, to uh go back to uh Alderman Christine's comment.

I think the one of the assumptions behind this uh I can't read the minds of the state legislators that created the statute, but I would imagine one of the things they're thinking is that you better control who you give your car key to and make sure that you're not negligently turning the use of your vehicle over to somebody that might do something like that.

Thank you.

Alder Person Camacho and then Matthews.

So quick question are we um is there a process in place?

Because it sounds like a lot of us are looking at different amendments to this under subsection subsection C, as you said.

Is there a process that we can do right now to start talking about actually amending it to that?

Well, sure.

I mean, you could you could debate it tonight and come up with an amendment to it.

Um but I would also add that there's nothing to prevent another motion to postpone a decision on this.

Um the motion has been made to suspend the rules and waive the third reading, but there could be a subsequent motion to postpone this to another meeting if you want to take time to think about it.

Okay.

Alder Person Matthews.

I I I agree that to me when you're looking at reckless driving or reckless driving, you there's clauses in there that talk about bodily injury and talk about harm and significant more than that.

But I also think that reckless driving could be construed as drug racing or breaking on the street or going too fast or doing a mashup.

I I understand that.

I is there the capability to somebody who causes bodily harm.

I I agree with keeping their car.

They we need to, we or their their vehicle, we need to figure out.

But there's there's a difference between somebody just being reckless going too fast and deemed reckless down there to alter person Molson's great.

If a roommate does that and is just kind of going too fast and acting reckless, it could be weeks before we get that release back.

And I think is there possibility for degrees?

Can we impact, can we impound the vehicle for bodily injury or a certain rate of reckless driving and keep that until a conviction or a judgment has been made, whereas something that's minor reckless trying to figure this out, minor reckless could be released after paying a fine and you see what I'm saying?

Could there be tiers to it where we can absolutely hold an impound a vehicle for this significant amount of reckless driving, but something that was deemed more minor with the officer's discretion could be released after two days and then it could go through the court system.

Well, the purpose of the court system is to determine what happened.

You know, you don't know what the severity of the offense was until there's a decision handed down by the court.

I think this is an illustration of why the statute is drafted to make it in the discretion of the officer at the scene.

Because you're I don't disagree with the points that are being made.

But I think it would be difficult, if not impossible, for us to try to come up with that graded system and say that well, if if it hits this level, then we turn the car over immediately or within two days, uh, because you don't know if it hits that level until after there's a court decision.

You know, that's that's the whole point of due process.

It works both ways, but it also delays a decision on uh whether the offense actually occurred or not until after there's a disposition by the court.

I I understand that, but from my position, there's a difference between doing 70 miles an hour racing recklessly down Silvernail versus somebody who is OWI down Meadowbrook and hits something, hits a pedestrian, hits uh those both reckless, but well two different things in the right.

But let's use let's go off of that example.

Who's who says that this defendant was doing 70 miles an hour and driving recklessly on silver nail?

Law enforcement, obviously.

And what if the defendant shows up in court and says, no, I wasn't doing that.

You know, that that's my point is that you can't uh well I think what you're trying to do would lead to a very complicated provision in the ordinance.

I I don't know if it would really be practical to try to enforce that.

Um but again, I I emphasize that I certainly understand and sympathize with the point you're making.

And we did have this discussion in our office when we were working on this draft.

I mean, what about the case where you know things get put over, things get delayed?

Uh sometimes you aren't even able to have uh an initial appearance or a pretrial conference until quite some time after the citation is issued.

I I'm just trying to think things through, and you have you have a child that takes your car, gets does something reckless, and until that goes through the system, that's a vehicle out of the family and until it goes through the process.

Or if it was minor, we pay the impound fee.

I'm just thinking things through and asking if that was a possibility.

But well, there's no question that the intent of the statute is to be punitive.

It's supposed to be severe and it's supposed to act as a deterrent to the behavior.

I think that's the whole point of it.

And I it may be something that you would consider is whether or not the situation here in Waukesha right now justifies the same kind of measures that they want to take in the city of Milwaukee.

You know, are we at that level?

No, we're not.

Uh and uh do we want to keep from getting to that level?

Certainly.

Um it's a good point for discussion.

I don't have a conclusive answer for you, but I guess the best I can say is that this is word for word an adoption of the state statute.

All right.

Uh first up we have Alderman uh Van Trieste, then Piper, then Lemke.

So I I'm uh asking this body uh to wave uh to go to a third reading, but also consider this.

We're talking about bodily injury, whether it's a passenger in this speeding reckless car or somebody that got hit.

Some of these cars that are involved in this kind of stuff, the the vehicles themselves hit homeowners' properties.

Now they're out of uh the enjoyment of their home for how many months, and businesses that employ people, and they're out of business for so many months as well as their employees.

So take that into consideration too.

Thanks.

Alder Person Piper.

Thank you.

I think for me the crux of this is the is the officer discretion part.

And I guess Tom, a question for you is so we have a situation where an individual is pulled over stopped for reckless driving, or in the eyes of the office of reckless driving.

Prior to a decision by that officer or officers or the supervisor to impound the vehicle, they would have access to that individual's prior criminal history, correct?

Correct.

So and again, I'm not gonna say that I'm pretending to be a cop, but I would imagine that considerations would be taken into account if this was if this person had a crystal clear record, and to Dale's point, made a horrible decision, they the officer may decide not to impound the vehicle, write the ticket for reckless driving, which is a municipal citation, and it goes through the process.

However, if you have an individual that's pulled over and say they have quite the lengthy criminal history as it relates to not behaving with cars, the officer may be a little bit more inclined to impound the vehicle because there might be a higher propensity for this individual to re-offend or do this again.

So then the officer may take into consideration that the individual's prior rec prior criminal history or prior record and say, you know what, it's probably a good idea that we impound this vehicle because there's a pretty good chance or a high level of propensity that this person's gonna do it again.

Is that a fair assessment?

That's a fair assessment, but like attorney running mentioned, the statute allows for us on a first offense and not consider the prior criminal history.

However, in reality, is that part of discretion that officers use?

Absolutely.

I think it's laid out well in uh in the memo that was produced from city attorney's office that the factors include the nature of the reckless driving behavior, the time and place of the driving, and the proximity to other people and property among other things.

So those are all things that are going to be considered of the different examples that you're using when the officers would use the discretion that they feel the need to impound the vehicle.

Correctly.

I I think so that point number one.

Point number two is there there has to be consequences if you do this in the city of Waukeshaw.

I mean, for crying out loud, if you have packer season tickets and you give them to somebody and they go up there and cause a fight or drink, you can lose your packer season tickets for something that's a lot less minor than this.

So I just my sense is that number one, there's officer discretion, which is going to be taken into account.

And I've I've had plenty of occasions to see that in actions on doing ride-alongs, and I have utmost confidence in our officers and the supervisors to make those decisions.

And secondly, there has to be consequences when you do something bad in the city of Waukeshaw, or will people will do things bad in the city of Waukeshaw?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Alderperson Lemke and then Anderson.

My only concern, I love the the the statute.

My only concern was that if the person gets proved innocent, they can be looking at tens of thousands of dollars in fees.

And so if they are proven innocent, they shouldn't have to pay to get their car impounded because if they're innocent, they're innocent.

But so I just wanted to make a motion saying that if they were proved innocent, they shouldn't have to pay to get their car back.

And not anything else I like about the the statute.

Thank you.

Is that a motion that you're making?

Yes.

Okay.

Uh we'll start.

Is there a second before I get to you, uh Anderson?

Uh Van Trieste.

That's a second.

Okay, so there's a second from Alderperson Van Trieste.

Uh Alder Person Anderson, did you want to speak on that?

I want to make sure that we're keeping the conversation on the motion that's on the floor.

I can always come back to you after this if you'd like.

Okay.

Let's start with any discussion on the motion at hand, which is an uh attorney running.

I'm sure that you can come up with uh appropriate language if as needed.

Um, but this is specifically to uh eliminate any fees for anyone who is found not guilty of reckless driving.

I'm gonna start with uh our city administrator, Tony.

If the council is going to approve such uh amendment, uh the thing I guess I would like you all to consider is who is paying for the impoundment fees, etc.

Is it going to be the city?

And if it's going to be the city, where is that money exactly coming from?

Alder Person Lemke.

May I suggest we keep the uh car in the police department's lock up uh in the back lot there, and there's no impound fees.

Okay, Alder Person Matthews.

That was my question.

Who's gonna pay for it?

Who pays for the fees?

We obviously we're talking about very few instances, hopefully, but who's gonna pay for it?

And then I I'm not a pose, I'm not a fan of what happens during a plea deal.

What happens if something goes through?

And I know that's going through the system.

There's a lot of variables in there who's gonna pay for it and when we're on the hook for it.

We don't have a budget for it.

All right.

Any other uh Alder Person Moulton?

Does the police department want to take custody of these cars honestly?

With the low frequency of these that we have, I'm telling you right now that wouldn't be a problem to impound at our department, given, but again, that changes based on the number of cases and other cars from year to year.

And if this did become a problem, I'm saying right now we could accommodate it, but I don't know if we could moving forward to make that an absolute rule.

Okay, yes, Alder Person Molton.

For the council members, does uh if they put the impound at the police department so that there's much lower fees, are we still getting the consequences we're looking for?

I mean, because otherwise you could just let them get their car back.

Okay, Alder Person Matthews.

I believe what we're talking about in this particular instance is only if they're found not guilty, correct?

The fees would be waived, and for those extended periods of time, it would be stored at that point.

So correct.

That's the motion that's on the floor.

Yeah, it would be just for not guilty.

Okay, but at the beginning, you don't know which ones are not guilty.

So they're in the impound lot or they're in the police lot.

Like okay.

Any other conversation regarding the amendment from Alderperson Lemke regarding those found not guilty of reckless driving?

All right, so there is a motion and a second.

Please vote when it is before you.

Again, this is just for the amendment that was proposed by Alderperson Lemke for those found not guilty of reckless driving.

Camacho, aye.

Matthews Nay.

All right, that motion does fail.

So we are back to discussing the original uh ordinance as it was presented.

Alder person Anderson just a point of clarification for one of the other issues I was brought up if my roommate or child or something technically is that a stolen car that I would be able to get back if there's concern about me not being able to get to work or something like that, if somebody uses it without my permission.

That depends upon the circumstances, of course.

Um just because it's your kid that takes the car.

Um could be stolen.

That you can't you can't say in every situation, it's gonna depend upon the circumstances.

Okay.

What oh um alder person with Tesca has a motion.

Uh I'd like a mo like to make a motion to approve um the adoption of Wisconsin statute 349.115 and in the municipal code regarding the impounding of vehicles used in reckless driving as presented by attorney running.

Okay, is there a second?

Yeah, but that was already was there a motion already?

Rick, there was a motion that was seconded.

Rick's amendment failed, so then you're back to the original.

Right.

Yeah, that was only for the suspension of the rules.

That was yeah, suspend the motion.

Yep, yeah.

I was like, I've been tracking all the motions right here.

There were a lot.

We're good.

All right, is there a second?

Uh Alder Person Van Trieste seconds.

Any more discussion?

Again, this is on the original ordinance as presented.

Alderperson Witesca.

Um, just one comment.

This was approved unanimously by the ONL committee.

We did have Chief Thompson in to talk to us about this about the importance of it.

We did have assistant city attorney Michael Radovich there to answer any questions because he was the one who reviewed this and does most of the municipal um prosecutions.

So they were both in support.

So I'd ask for everybody's support to approve this.

Great.

Any other discussion on the ordinance itself?

All right.

Then after much discussion, uh please vote when it is before you.

Come on, Chun May.

Matthew's aye.

All right.

Uh that motion does pass.

So thank you, Brian.

I think that concludes your your portion of the meeting.

So thank you for sticking around with us.

Next up, we have communications and engagement team year end review.

Rebecca.

I know this was put off from the last meeting, so thank you.

All right, thank you.

Um, so I'm here just to do the communications and engagement team annual report.

So looking back at all the things that we accomplished and worked on back in 2025.

Um traditionally we've done this report for you every year, so we're just kind of continuing with that, keeping you updated on the things that we've been working on for the past year.

The full report is attached to the agenda, so certainly I'm not gonna talk about every detail, um, but it is attached to the agenda, so certainly if you want to look at that or have other questions, um you can do that.

Um, we talk about the communications and engagement team.

Just wanted to quickly put a picture up so you kind of know the people that are a part of this team.

So we handle everything from um A V issues, whether it's at fire, police, all the different buildings, we handle A V things, um, the website, um, digital signage, all of our city communications, um, public meetings.

Patricia's here tonight, our uh one of our part-time employees handling um work on the public meetings and the broadcasting of those.

Um, so a variety of different tasks um that we cover, and I'll just be going through some of those.

Um, so what I have up on the slide are just sort of new projects and initiatives.

So certainly there's things that we are doing and continuing to do, but these are just highlighting some of the new things that happened in 2025.

Um, so one of those was a redesign of the city website.

Um, just wanted to call that out.

We re did redesign the city website, and the main basis for that is that there are new um guidelines that the city is under in terms of ADA accessibility for digital access, and so the website was redesigned um to meet all those guidelines and requirements.

Um, so that was one of the key pieces we accomplished last year, and that also involved um some work on our meeting agendas as well.

Um, one of the other big things last year was um the transition and garbage and recycling, so to John's disposal.

So the communications team always plays a role in all of those things, so certainly public works department was the lead in in that happening, but the communications teams in terms of in terms of responding to all the communications, getting that information out, working through with residents sort of through that process.

Um, we assist departments on all of those types of initiatives and programs.

Um, one of our other big things, and I just brought a copy is the city of Waukesha, um, the Walkershaw current.

So we've always produced um the parking rec department park recreation and forestry department has always produced the activity guide.

Um, but previously we were mailing out some different communications.

So we had the workspace, the public works newsletter going out, um, as well as some other city communications.

So all of that is combined now into the Walkershaw current, which is a flip book with the activity guide.

Um, so there's significant cost savings for the city, around $30,000, and that we're not mailing separate communications.

We're all we're combining into one large city publication.

Um, so this first one out in December, and the next version will come out um in April with the summer events and activity guide.

Um of the other pieces we've been working on, obviously you're all aware of that, is the strategic plan.

So doing some strategic plan reporting um and workshops and pieces around the strategic plan and making sure that we're communicating those efforts also out to the public as we work on some of those pieces.

So our team works sort of what I call externally public communications and engagement, getting things out to the public.

We also work internally, so some things that are just really geared um towards employees.

So just to highlight two of the employee things we worked on last year.

Um, one of those is working with the IT department to create a new employee sort of photo directory.

We always hear from employees.

We have over 500 employees kind of working in all different departments and areas that they don't always know each other or best know who to contact or how to get in touch with people.

So we created an online um it well, it's on the employee internet, so this the employee version of the um sort of a website.

Um, and so that now they can contact better contact employees and see who they're contacting and working with.

We also just started holding new employee, we're calling them SOAR workshops.

That's an acronym based on our core values for the city.

So employees always had an employee orientation.

Their first day they come in and they hear a lot of information, most of it's geared around benefits, which is important information.

But now we're actually also inviting employees about three months within the we look back sort of three or four months after they've been hired, and we invite them to a session, and where we're following up and teaching them more about the organization and connecting them with the city administrator and the finance director on the budgeting and some of those different pieces to make sure that they're staying connected with the city and then also to better hear from employees the things that are going well, or maybe things we can continue to improve upon.

So just some of the stats.

Again, these are in the report.

As I've said, we do sort of public things, so the public programs, we continue to hold the local government academy, we do the mayor's celebrate walkershop breakfast, we hold the Night of Lights events, we've been involved in the parade memorial pieces, and then also holding a ceremony.

Looking sort of in the middle, employee programs.

So we continue to hold some employee events, and also one of our I would say more popular or one of the programs that we found a lot of benefit from is the leadership class.

We continue to hold an employee leadership class each year, and then we continue to keep those employees engaged in what we call our leadership alumni group where we're doing tours of different city buildings, bringing in speakers, so we've continued to see a lot of great benefit from running that program.

And then kind of in that last column, so publications.

As I said, we're certainly putting out a lot of different pieces that we continue to do.

So welcome postcards to new residents.

There's 250 to our 254 meetings last year streamed online.

So I know you all know that you're at a lot of public meetings, but there are a lot of meetings happening here in this building.

And so we are we are not staffing, our team is not staffing all those meetings, but we are still processing the video for those, making sure that they're going out to the public.

Um so there's still our efforts around all of those pieces.

So just lots of different things we continue to be involved in throughout the city.

So again, looking at some of the stats, I know a lot of people in the past, particularly think of us as sort of the social media team.

Obviously, we're doing a lot of communications beyond just social media.

Um, but social media does provide us very easy to see stats, so it's easy to see kind of sometimes more the people that were reaching or how we're getting that information out there.

Um, the other thing I say with social media is it does allow us to reach a lot of people very quickly, and it doesn't really cost us anything per se.

So some of our most popular posts are always around again cancellations or changes or things that are happening very currently, and those are things that are hard to put in a printed newsletter because those are planned for and printed so far in advance.

So social media again, the top posts were around the flooding, the Fourth of July parade cancellation, um, some of those pieces were some of our top reaches for social media.

We continue to see our followers increase and our engagement increase year over year.

As I mentioned, the city website, we did a refresh last year.

Um we can um continue to see growth in the website.

The website is an ever-changing document or every changing living piece, and so we are always updating it, making changes to it.

If you ever see anything that you think should be added to the website or updated, we're certainly open to do that.

Um, with the refresh last year, as I said, we really focused on accessibility.

Um, so I know it's very small, but there is on the website a little icon of like a person kind of standing like this.

Those are the accessibility, some of the accessibility tools, so that allows people to change the font on the website to make the font bigger.

There's dyslexia friendly options, all sorts of different pieces to hopefully make that whatever the experience can, however, we can improve that experience for the user.

Um, we also have an AI chat bot on the website.

Um I did pull the stats from that.

So last year we had 3,533 chats on that AI chat bot.

So roughly about 10 chats or so a day.

So we are seeing people using that and hopefully then getting their questions answered and putting them to the right place.

Because we often we talk about people don't necessarily know what government or what department to go to, what page to go to.

So sometimes using chats or just sending us messages on Facebook is easier for people.

Um so we do process all those and make sure that people are still getting getting the right information and getting to the right place.

Uh we do produce a lot of videos.

We had 114 new videos last year that went out on social media and other platforms.

Um, some of the videos that we do are just internal uses.

So some of the videos are just training videos or things that are for employees, so you don't necessarily see all the all the videos that are going out, but we continue to reach a lot of people through those channels.

We send out our weekly email newsletter.

Um, our subscribers went up significantly last year, um, mainly because through the garbage and recycling communications, we did mailings every home, and then we got emails back from that, so that allowed us to dramatically increase the list.

So that allowed us to dramatically increase the list.

So we certainly had a strong list before, but it helped us to improve that.

Just a quick mention that our team does also work on some downtown communications.

This is in coordination with the community development department.

So years ago there was a contract where a company was sort of promoting the downtown channels.

We brought that in-house.

And so we do social media, the downtown website, and a newsletter focused on promoting events and things happening specifically in downtown Walkershaw.

And we've continued to see growth and increases in those channels as well.

Just a quick mention on mention on police communication.

So we've always worked with the police department, but this past year we decided to work a little, we sort of further solidified that partnership with the police department in the fact that we are now regularly posting, for instance, on social media for the police department.

So they've always had staff involved in it, and they always posted when there was you know specific events, or sometimes we would take it over if there was something major happening in the city.

But now we are working directly with them on that regular communication is going out on their channels.

And when we started doing that back um last spring, almost a year ago, we saw dramatic increase almost right away, and that we're putting out regular communication, not just when there's an emergency or something and a major event, but that we're continuing to regularly push communication out through those channels.

So we're continuing to work with them on that.

So just a quick note there are lots of ways for people to stay connected with the city, and we just hope that you are educated and informed about those channels as well.

I know we often hear from people or sometimes that they didn't know about information.

We didn't know that this was happening, or we didn't understand, we didn't know about Russian branch pickup, or we didn't know about whatever it might be.

Um so I just encourage you to continue to be advocates for help connect people to where they can find the information.

So certainly we can't get every piece of information in front of everyone's houses, or you know, however that we can't put it in their brains.

I sometimes say communication is a two-way street.

So we are trying to put the information out in as many channels as possible, as many ways as possible, but people do have to engage with that information in some way.

But we do ask that you help us with that.

So sometimes people don't realize we're sending out a weekly email newsletter.

All we need is their email address.

So if you're able to give us their email address, we're happy to add them to that list.

Um, and so I encourage you to in your conversations people try to point them to where they could have found the information so that they're trained and educated for the future.

Um, and we do have um just little cards.

So if you're ever talking to residents, they can just write their email down, you can hand them to me or just throw them in our mailbox.

We're happy to always collect um emails or get people connected um to any of our our information channels.

And I will stop with that unless there's anything.

Thank you for the presentation.

Are there any questions for Rebecca?

Elder person Piper.

Rebecca, um, not a question, more simply a compliment.

I want to thank commend you and Tony and the team for combining the workspace and combining some of those broad periodicals to save a little over 20,000.

I know it's something that we had talked about a couple about a year and a half ago, and I'm glad to see that done.

So thank you very much for the work and the presentation tonight.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Elder person Chrisine.

Thank you, and thank you to Rebecca and your team.

Uh my neighborhood is uh changing with a lot of homes going up for sale with a lot of younger people moving in, and this really helps me describe to them how oh, I can just do this on the city website.

Oh, I can just do a social media thing.

So it's a it's a great tool when I meet new people when I'm out walking, just like hey, the city's got this website, just do that because then I don't have to write anything down, they don't have to write anything down, and it's really good for uh the newer families, younger families moving to my neighborhood and the older people still connect with me verbally when I'm out walking.

Thank you.

Yes, and my other plug, Jess, if you do hear if you interact with new residents, we do have a resident guide too, which is uh full resource on all the city services.

So even if you might just get one question from a new resident, like one's my garbage, that's a great avenue to point them to the resident guide because they might have other questions or not under, you know, know the full breadth of city services.

So making sure you're pointing to them to that online resource.

Great.

Any other questions?

Again, thank you, Rebecca.

I know I'm always encouraging folks to follow us on social media and sign up for the newsletter.

So thank you to you and your team.

All right.

Uh moving along, we do have a public hearing, uh, just as a note for everyone.

Um we'll start with the presentation.

And I don't know who's doing the presentation, Tony.

Do you know?

Excellent.

Thank you if you want to come on up.

Um, we'll start uh with the presentation, and then if there are any comments from the public, we'll start there and then we'll close that for discussion and move on to the council members.

So come on.

Sorry.

No.

There's a gray button.

There's a gray button on the right.

It's on the bottom.

How about now?

There we go.

Here we know.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you.

Um, I would like to go through a um oh, sorry, can you state your name for those at home and your position?

Thank you.

I apologize.

Aaron Laneert, I'm the City Forester, forestry uh supervisor for the City of Walkershaw.

Um I wanted to go through um like a year-in review as well as far as uh what what we've been doing in forestry in 2025 before I get to the um the uh proposed tree planting, and that's part of this.

Um in the handouts um we have uh our tree urban forest um breakdown as far as species.

We are trying to um minimize large scale disasters like we've seen with emerald ash poor by reducing the um ash population and um if you look at our our Norway maple population right now, it's over 20 25 percent.

We want to get that down to 10 10 percent or less over with through attrition.

Um the tree planting summary uh kind of goes through the the trees that we are charging for um and the trees that we were scheduling to replace.

Um for the the developments that were started prior to this year, we're gonna be continuing to charge a one-time fee for tree planting.

Um moving forward uh for new developments.

We're gonna be moving that to um to the developers for for um planting the new the new um plantings so that kind of getting away from charging homeowners directly just because the issue with frontage being different for different size properties.

This way the developer kind of divbies that up amongst everybody, every how every property um as far as year in review um we're um maintenance um we've we're pruning about uh 3600 trees last year, which is about an average amount right now.

Um removals we've kind of reduced our amount of removals.

That's because of uh emerald ash borer issues has become less.

We've we're treating those more.

So the trees that we're removing now, the ash trees are removing now have been treated.

Um and they come out of the the canopy through attrition through other uh loss.

Um our service requests uh continue to remain around rate or hover rate around a thousand a year.

Um we're hoping with uh increased maintenance we can reduce that number in years to come.

Um new tree plantings.

Um we had a re reduction in our new tree plantings last year, um, partly because um uh we're trying to be more selective in where we replace trees.

We're trying to avoid conflicts that we see that we see now.

You know, we're trying to avoid those for the next generation, whether it'll be conflicts with underground utilities or above ground utilities or um other other trees and and yards.

We see a lot of conflicts with with them as they grow together, so we don't want to plant trees underneath other trees to avoid those conflicts.

Um street tree planting program um consists of 158 trees this year.

We're so this year we're gonna be soliciting requests for quotes for um uh contractors to have those trees planted.

That's to focus our internal staff's focus on to um tree maintenance, meaning pruning those trees.

Um so we're gonna try to free up the staff to do that.

So that's that's one of the things that you'll see in the um the assessment charge.

Uh there's a different uh price for um installation shown.

Um the a lot of the new I think we have 18 new plantings, and only 15 are chargeable, and they're gonna be located in Alderman Alderman districts 10, 12, and 15.

And we are using five different nurseries this year.

Um we've got trees ordered from five different nurseries.

Um that allows us to get the variety that we need again to try to reduce those um overly planted species.

We've been able to get the the variety we need through um multiple different uh nurseries.

Um if you want to look at the tree planting assessment charge, um this year we want to keep the the proposals to keep the um the the charge at 397 dollars um this is based on our average tree price um plus an estimated labor cost.

The labor cost comes from a contractor that planted some trees for us last year.

Um and right now, like I said, the the we have a risk request for quotes out right now for the for a contractor to plant trees for us.

Um that's that's our uh I think so.

The one other thing I wanted to bring up, I'm thank you.

Uh the um this is this is gonna be our 48th annual Arbor Day celebration coming up this uh this year.

Um it's gonna be held on April 25th, and this year we are going to celebrate Arbor Day by planting over 100 trees and shrubs at Rivers Crossing Park.

Um and it's to help it's to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Parks Recreation and Forestry Board.

It's gonna be sponsored by the tree planting is gonna be sponsored by the Park Foundation of Waukeshaw, the Friends of WPRF and Spring City Garden Club.

So I think uh you're if you're free on on Earth Day, come help us plant some trees.

That sounds really fun.

I hope so.

That's my favorite part of the job.

Absolutely.

Any other comments?

That's what I've got.

If there's any questions, excellent.

Uh, are there any comments or questions from the public?

We're gonna start with that because this is a public hearing.

All right, seeing none, we will close the public hearing.

Are there any questions, comments, discussion from uh Alderperson Matthews and then with Tesca?

So define replacements.

We're replacing these on properties.

Were we replacing these?

Were we swapping these out?

So majority of these are gonna be street trees.

There are some, there's gonna be a boulevard trees, but right now the ones that are scheduled are majority street trees between the part between the sidewalk and the curb.

Um the replacements are trees that have been already charged for one time.

Um the new trees or the fill-ins are trees that are have never been planted.

We do a one-time, a one-time charge for for initial planting.

And these would be in say in my district, they would be in that easement between the sidewalk and there and the street.

Correct.

Yep.

Do we know I'm I'm all for replacing the trees, but I also know too, there's a systemic problem in the city in some areas where the trees are actually uprooting and causing us more financial pain in repairing sidewalks as well, too.

Have we taken that into consideration?

Are we to replacing a tree where there are systemic problems already with sidewalks and uh improper or smaller easement where it's causing issues, or wouldn't it be better just to remove it and save us some money down the road?

Or do we have a I guess we do we have a map and locations where these replacements are gonna be?

We have we have record of all 27,000 plus street and park trees.

Um as far as the issue between the sidewalk and the and the tree, um the generally most of our terraces are fairly small.

Um there are some wider terraces, but they're a generally a standard uh standard size.

Uh the the idea of a street tree program, um the value comes from the size of the trees.

We want to grow as big a trees as possible.

Um the value, like I said, becomes uh it's it's kind of an inverse relationship between most public utilities where you decrease the value over time, whereas a true street tree increases in value over time, the value in the shade and the the rain infiltration that that uh that it does.

So there is an issue, we understand there's an issue, um, but if we did if we just remove trees because they were too big, then we we're not realizing the the value of the trees as they get bigger.

Um when it comes to replacing them.

If we replace shade trees with small trees, then we don't get that value.

I I understand it, but I probably every month I get a call about a sidewalk issue or in the district where the trees were people in my district are talking about taking them out in that location in that easement there.

So I'd be hard pressed to say I'd like to see a map of where we're talking about replacing them before I could say if it's in that small easement between the sidewalk and there, yep.

It's part of the it would be it would be probably not a good option in a lot of the districts there.

I can't speak for 10 and 15, but that's where I'm coming from.

I'd love to see a map of where the replacements are.

All right, elder person with Tesca.

Um yeah, just a question about your uh higher, and it's been a while.

Yeah, um the charge history.

So your your planting breakdown, you've got you've got an estimated labor cost of 155, but then you have an estimated total cost of 428.

Is that because we're hiring a contractor to do it going forward versus having a city employee do it?

Yep, that's the first number 155.

That's an estimate based on our internal labor.

Um that doesn't include the cost of benefits, does include the cost of of equipment wear and tear.

So well with the contractor's price, that's a more realistic.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um I know I made the same comment last year on parks and rec, but I am uh I believe we should pass the full cost of these trees on to the residents who are requesting them, right?

The replacements for everyone's reference replacements, the city covers.

Anyone who's requesting a new tree has to pay for it.

So my suggestion has been that we charge residents who are asking for a new tree.

So that's my comment.

Thanks.

Is that a comment or a motion?

Comment.

I'll let others comment first.

All right.

Alder Person thing.

Thank you.

Um I think what we're getting at is we're getting to the point where we're pricing people out of wanting to buy a tree for their terrace area.

All right.

There's no tree there now.

When I purchased mine years ago, it was like 120 dollars.

All right.

It's not bad for a guaranteed tree, right?

But I think we're getting to the tipping point, maybe what three, you know, almost 400 for somebody to uh you know ask for a tree on their own.

Um why are we contracting it out now?

Because the city crews used to plant these trees.

Why are we giving the money to an outside contractor to do the work that our forestry department should be doing, in my opinion?

Sure, sure.

Um two reasons.

We know we have an issue with maintenance.

We want to we want to focus our our internal staff on on pruning maintenance.

Um, and we try to increase those pruning numbers in order to do that, something has to give.

Right now we have five full-time staff.

I've got two open positions, so it just it makes sense to uh hire some contractors to assist us somewhere.

And for us, we think that that tree planting is where it makes the most sense.

Okay.

Alder person Anderson and then Piper.

Thank you.

Just out of curiosity, um, for the new requests for trees, how many are into new subdivisions versus people who live in a house that didn't have a tree that is asking for a new one?

So the I think the total was 18 18 total trees, and of those 15 are chargeable.

Okay.

So it's so the majority.

So those, yeah, those are all those are all new new developments that have never been putting.

And that cost is going to be shifted to the developers.

Correct, moving forwards.

But these are these are subdivisions which have already been started developing.

So there will be they will still be chargeable trees, but moving forward as if there are new developments that will be borne by the the developer.

So I I'm in agreement with Alderman with Tesca there.

If we're going to eventually move to that anyways, and there's so few trees that are being asked for in existing areas, I think we should charge the whole the entire cost of the replace or the um cost of the tree and labor.

Is that a motion or a comment?

Comment.

Okay.

Are there any other comments or motions?

Alder person lumpkey.

Oh, sorry, I'm sorry.

I already said piper.

Go for Rick.

That's okay.

Sorry.

When I drive through the various parts of the city, the older neighborhoods, I love the old trees.

My subdivision just turned 27 years old now, and it is one of the subdivisions that's hit hardest by the emerald ash bore, because every street tree are about 70% of them were ash trees.

And over the last seven to ten years, they've been dying and being replaced.

So we have a subdivision that has 25-year-old trees, and we have a subdivision that have one and two and three-year trees because they're they've been wrecked by the emerald ash bore.

And to drive through my subdivision, it's sad to see the small trees.

It's great to see the big trees throughout the city, and I'm in favor of trees.

Now my subdivision is also one of the ones that's in bedrock.

So it has a very high incidence of sidewalk cracking.

There are 82 sections of 106 homes that need to be replaced.

So while that is a cost, um, I think the value of the tree helps raise the property values, and our subdivision has some of the highest property values.

I'm sad to say uh it's a benefit, but it's also a curse.

Uh I think the tree I'm in favor of the tree planting program.

I think 397 is a fair price.

Uh my landscaper said you could uh he would charge double to put one of those trees in my backyard.

So uh I think it's fair to the to the resident.

Uh and uh I like the I suggestion that the new developments are gonna be put the trees are gonna be paid for by the developers.

So I'm in favor of the motion uh directly as it is 397 per tree.

And that's a motion.

There are no motions on the floor.

Are you making a motion?

Yes.

All right, so there is a motion um to uh approve the assessment for $397 per tree.

Is there a second?

There's a second from Alderperson Wiggerson.

Uh and then I'm gonna go back to Alderperson Piper.

I apologize.

That's okay.

Aaron, thank you.

And I I'll support the motion as it's been as it's been made.

I guess the the question I have is I'm looking at the the history where you kind of break out the different costs.

So it seems like with if with the contract labor, it's roughly 229 dollars for their labor based on the sheet.

And if the city crew were to do it, it'd be about 155 dollars for a city crew to do it.

So I guess, and I know your and I know your department is is thin, and I've been one that's been asking and begging for more pruning around the city, especially in my district, so I get it.

I guess my question is why can't folks the city garage plant trees?

And just partner with the garage and have them help help augment some of the work that do this kind of work, and that way your folks can focus on pruning.

Sure.

And they they uh have been helping us quite a bit.

They've they've been doing some removals for us, they're actually grinding some stumps for us when it's not snowing.

Um so they yeah, so they have been helping us.

Um and they that time of year gets a little bit tricky with timing because I know once the weather warms up, they need to get they need to get on to you know, road patching and road repair and things like that.

So um, I think we tried it last year and it became difficult with like I said, having that them having to do their work and then trying to help us at the same time, it was became very difficult to try to make that work.

I'd ask you to try again, but thank you.

I'll take the help wherever I can get it.

Alder Person Matthews.

Just one last question for clarity.

New stuff new trees.

I understand that the customer's request will charge the resident, correct?

Correct.

So if the trees never been planted before, whether it's a uh request for whatever reason, if we we missed the tree years ago, um, or if um like in new subdivisions that's where that's where majority that's for all but one of these is gonna go.

I'm I'm I'm good with that.

Talk about replacements again, clarify replacements.

Who pays for replacements?

That's that's born from the forestry budget.

Okay.

So if we deem it, it's uh a species that we're trying to move away from, or if it whatever it needs to be replaced, we deem that we pay for that.

Correct.

And that's the majority of them.

That's 140 that your budget in for all.

So that's really the onus, and that's the cost to the cities.

Correct.

The 140, 150 replacements.

Right.

Yep.

Okay.

Thank you.

Alder Person Witaska.

Um, just one last comment.

Um, again, I'm not in favor of 397.

To Alderman and Lemke's point, to have someone do this privately in your backyard would cost twice as much.

We're not asking the world of our residents, anybody who wants a tree and is buying a new house, which is expensive, can probably afford an extra thirty dollars for a tree if they want it, so that that doesn't have to be spread out among all the other taxpayers in the city.

And again, it's not a tremendous amount.

It's just a concept of are we being responsible for everybody versus the residents who want a tree and are buying a new house.

Are you offering a friendly amendment?

No.

All right, just making sure.

Uh Alder Person Wigerson and then Anderson.

I don't have a question.

I just really have a comment.

So um March 20th of this year, I will have owned my home for 27 years, and I live on Anoka and Genesee Street, and I have two very large ash trees on my in front of my terrace.

And I have two very large ash trees on my in front of my terrace.

And I have to just commend you because they are out there every year doing the treatment.

So for that I'm very thankful.

And my ash trees are very, very healthy.

Anyway, I just wanted to say in regards to the 397.

Um, if anybody has priced out a tree recently, which is me, yes, it is very much so, double the cost.

So I think 397 is very reasonable.

That's all we had to say.

All right.

Alder Person Anderson.

Uh, just to clarify, the difference between the 397 and the 428, so that $30 or so.

If the resident isn't paying for that, we're paying that difference.

That's money that's spread out across as Alderman Wateska mentioned, all of the taxpayers.

So everybody else is subsidizing the trees that we're planting for these people.

To an extent, yes.

They're this this number is based on an estimate.

And like I said, I'd I'll next year I'll have a better, uh, more accurate number.

This is based on an estimate from uh contractor.

We had plant some trees for us last year, but this this year in this coming spring.

I've I've already got an uh request for quotes out, so we'll have a better idea of um what that actual cost to plant trees is for us if we're gonna keep continuing this way.

Do you expect it to go down?

Uh there's potential.

I'd I'd have to wait until they see this in the numbers.

Thank you.

Are there any other comments?

There is a motion on the floor for the $397 per tree.

Just making sure that we're good and all clear on that.

Okay.

So the motion is to approve the proposed assessment for the spring 2026 public street tree planting program at $397 per tree.

Please vote when it is before you.

Matthews, nay.

All right.

That motion does pass nine to four.

So thank you, Aaron, for your presentation.

Appreciate it.

Uh, we will move on to reports.

Uh, transit commission.

Alex, anything?

Um, I don't know.

Actually, we do not have any items tonight, but uh, we have a meeting on Thursday.

Um, and those that are interested in attending, we have a public hearing for uh uh route reduction.

So stay tuned for that on the next meeting for council.

Excellent, thank you.

Uh water utility, Alderperson Matthews.

Uh next meeting is Thursday at six o'clock, right next door.

All welcome to attend.

Okay.

IT board, Alderperson Manion.

No meeting, no report.

Okay, landmarks commission, Alder Crisine.

Thank you.

Our last meeting, actually, our first meeting of the year.

Um, we had uh one application for us, not seeking money, just uh uh request to replace windows, and we approved the uh 1980s vinyl windows with a nice fiberglass upgrade.

Um a little bit darker color, it's not quite wood, but it looks great.

And our next meeting was changed uh at request uh for planning commission so they could talk about uh upcoming ordinances.

All right, thank you.

Uh redevelopment authority, Alderperson Rick Lemke.

Our meeting last night was snowed out.

Thank you.

Our next meeting will be the third Monday of next month.

All right.

Uh Parks Wreck and Forestry.

I know Alder Person Wells is not here.

Um Chesca.

Nope, it's Camacho, sorry.

So you're gonna go for it.

Yeah, no meeting, no report.

I was anticlimactic.

Well, that was easy.

Yeah, an anti-climatic.

All right, library board.

That is me.

Um so at our most recent meeting, we got to hear from our marketing team.

So just like we did tonight, uh, we heard from the library marketing team.

Um, so if you ever follow the library on uh social media, you will occasionally see reels.

Uh we got to meet those people in person, those celebrities.

Uh, they were very excited that we called them celebrities.

Uh, we also got um some updates on the children's area expansion efforts.

Uh we reviewed our annual report.

We approved a new leadership organization chart.

Um, and that was it.

It was a pretty short meeting.

End of report.

Uh moving on, cemetery commission report, alder person cruising.

Thank you.

The uh tuck pointing got approved and passed.

So I think the once it warms up, they're gonna do the tuck parting on the chapel, uh, finishing up tuck pointing from last year.

And uh we're looking forward to many host sites around the city, including the cemetery for Waukesha unlocked this fall.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Uh Waukesha Housing Authority report, Alderperson Piper.

Thank you.

Uh no report this evening.

Our next meeting's actually tomorrow, 9 a.m.

at the housing authority on Arcadian Avenue.

All are welcome to attend.

Thank you.

Community development block grant.

No report.

All right.

Public art committee, Alderperson Molson.

No report.

All right.

Plan Commission, Jennifer.

Um no report.

The meeting is next week Wednesday, and there's an expansion of NEO down in St.

Paul on that agenda.

So if you're interested, you can check that out.

Excellent.

Uh moving on to standing committees, finance committee.

No report.

All right.

Building and grounds.

Uh no report.

No report.

Uh ordinance and licensing.

Um all items already covered.

Excellent.

Uh human resources committee.

Alder Person Wiggerson.

Our meeting is tomorrow, 6 o'clock in council chambers.

Awesome.

Uh Board of Public Works.

You have a couple of things on here, Alex.

Yes, we've got uh two bids tonight.

Uh the first bid that we received on February 20th, 2026 was for the North Moreland Boulevard and Michigan Avenue traffic signal improvement project.

Uh the board recommended moving forward with the low base bid and alternate bid number one from Leylon contractors in the amount of 433,976 and two cents be awarded.

Okay.

Alder Person Piper.

So moved.

Alder Person Payne?

Second.

All right.

Any discussion?

All right, please vote when it is before you.

Come on, Joe Aye.

Matthew's aye.

All right.

That motion passes uh unanimously.

Next.

The next bid is for uh the concrete pavement patching and concrete sawing project.

Uh the board recommended moving forward with a low bid from state contractors and the amount of 595,190.

All right, alder person Piper.

So moved.

Alder Person Payne?

Second.

All right.

The motion is to approve the low bid.

Please vote when it is before you.

Come on, Matthew's aye.

All right.

That motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Um, director of public works report.

Anything, Alex?

Um, I guess I'll just uh thank uh all the operators that were out uh for over 21 hours over the last two days, uh salting and plowing.

Um so it's quite an ordeal the ice that we first received and then the uh the snow that was blowing and blowing and blowing.

So uh 21 hours over two days and uh four to five hundred tons of salt spent.

So quite a bit.

Yeah, could have been worse.

So uh Alder Person Anderson.

Alex, I had a question for you.

And first I want to agree with everything you said is fantastic job.

Has there been any consideration to pushing back the brush collection because everybody's yard is covered with snow?

Uh we'll be talking about that, but uh we look to see that there's a lot of uh melting going on this uh this weekend here.

We'll see.

Um I know before the snow there was a lot of brush piles out already, and and leaf piles as well.

Um so uh we'll we'll take that into consideration.

But uh April, that first week of April is coming pretty quickly for sure.

So thank you.

Alder Person Lemke.

Isn't it your goal to pick up the brush before the leaves get on it?

So that's why it's earlier.

The brush before the leaves are in the words you want to pick up the brush before all the leaves bud and grow so that it's less messed.

Well, there's there's several reasons for doing it early, but uh yeah, part of it is is that there is less.

Yeah, most people get their stuff put out early with the before things start bloom blossoming, but also early April, mid April to get to Alderman Piper's point as we get rather busy starting off, and the weather gets warmer and usually middle of April.

So um the earlier we can get to that, the sooner we get to patch and roads and fixing storm inlets and on all of that stuff.

So uh gives us more time for that.

Excellent.

Any other questions for Alex?

Thank you to you and your team.

I know it's been a rough couple of days, so thank you for that.

Thank you.

Um moving along, the city attorney did uh notify us that uh there is no city attorney's report tonight.

City administrators report.

No report.

No report.

Uh mayor's report, he's not here.

I hope he's having a great time, but I will tell you from myself and from him.

Happy St.

Patrick's Day.

Are there any referrals?

Yes, Alder Person Van Trieste.

I've got uh referral for odd and even parking year round.

I'd like to see that rescinded uh the park on either side of the road as you see fit.

Okay.

I think that goes to buildings and grounds too.

I believe that would be an ordinance, yes.

So that would probably go to ONL.

Um can you make sure that that um also goes to Brian's office with your wording uh that you would like anyone else?

All right, then absent any objections?

We are adjourned.