Okay, seeing that it's six o'clock.

We're gonna start our finance committee Tuesday, June 30th.

I'm gonna call the order.

Seeing everyone but Joe Piper here today, we have a quorum.

He's on vacation.

So we'll stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance.

To the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for law.

With that, I don't see anybody here for public comment.

So we'll move on to approval of the minutes.

Does anybody have any objections to the minutes for June 9th, 2026?

Seeing none, we'll pass that by unanimous consent.

That brings us on to the business item, ID number 2603985.

Review on possible action on a budget amendment to increase the capital expenses for the City Hall Security Improvements Project.

I will start us off.

Yes, thank you.

So yes, Rebecca Peterson, Communications and Engagement Manager, and then I am joined by Chief Thompson and then Joe Walter, who is our facilities and construction manager for the engineering department public works.

So I wanted to start by just giving a little bit of background on this project.

So yes, we are asking for a budget amendment to increase expenses or to have expenses for a security hall security project.

And really how this started is that over the last several years we've seen an increasing number of incidents taking place here at City Hall.

So there have been disorderly individuals that have come into City Hall space and made direct threats, honestly, to employees or the space or um, you know, call it um threaten physical harm um to employees in the building to the level where employees have had to push their the panic button that is installed in certain areas and called the police department.

Um obviously the police department has responded uh swiftly, been able to assist us in those situations and um issue citations and and handle the individuals in the situation.

But certainly each one of those incidences has left employees feeling extremely fearful, um, I'd say scared and unsure, unsafe in the work environment.

And certainly that's not something we want employees to feel you know all the time that they are that they are unsafe and that we are not caring and concerned about their safety in their workplace.

Um so it's something we're taking very seriously.

So we um the city administrator reached out to the police department um and our public works department, and um specifically for the police department sort of asked for a review of the building and the security.

Are there things we could do that would just make the building more secure?

Are there practical steps we could take to help employees um feel safer and be safer in the building space?

So um they did a review of the building.

We've worked with the public works department to think about kind of what that would look like, obviously, in terms of of costs and actual, you know, um certain elements of that.

Um and so what we're proposing are are four different things that we think will help um employees and help increase the security of this building.

So um I'm just gonna run through them quickly and then Joe Walter can obviously um address some of the more specifics of the construct, you know, if you have questions on some of those pieces.

But um, so one of the things we're looking at is updating the access levels um on all floors of the building.

So there are certain areas that were always intended to be employee areas, like um meeting spaces and rooms that currently now are not behind locked doors.

Um, and so the intention would be that we will just secure those areas that were meant to be employee areas.

Certainly, if there are public meetings or things in those areas, employees would, you know, would escort people back, and they could still be used, but day to day they're used for employee spaces, and they were always meant to be employee spaces, so just making sure that those um security elements are in place.

Um a second piece is installing barriers to protect exterior utility access points.

There's just some um some areas that the police department identified that maybe you know something could happen to those exterior areas that we maybe we want to just better secure, so we're not um opening the building up to some of those possible um possible issues.

Um a third thing is just numbering.

So making sure that all of the numbering and signage on all the doors and spaces here is clear and that they are numbered.

There's a lot of rooms that currently do not have clear numbering.

Um, and as you would see, if you went into any school or most office buildings today, they are clearly numbered, really for the purpose of making sure that police and firefighters and all of our first responders can clearly identify where they're going in the building if someone were calling for an emergency that they can say which room clearly which room they're in, and that it like I said, police and fire then can be able to respond to that specific area.

So that is a piece of this project as well.

And then the final piece, which is the largest piece, um, we are proposing installing um a glass security barrier at the clerk's clerk treasurer's office desk, which is located right here off the lobby, and then also on the second floor where the engineering um public works and community development customer service desk is located.

So those are our two public counters um where we are interacting with the public all day long that do not have any sort of um protective barrier.

Um it's important to note that municipal court, which is also located here on this floor, does have the glass protective barrier.

So if you were going to municipal court to pay a fine or a citation, you would be interacting with the staff, you know, thro through that glass barrier.

Um, but just steps away, as staff know, steps away is the clerk treasurer's office space, which does not have that protective barrier.

And so the same people that are in this building for you know, municipal court and other other services could be interacting at any one of those desks without you know the staff having any level of protection.

So um and I I should point out one thing I I did not mention is that the fear and has gotten to the level that we have had employees actually resign from their position, stating that they did not feel safe in in their work environment.

So um again, something we want to take very seriously.

We want to show employees that obviously we value their lives, we value their safety, we care about this work environment, and we want it to be a safe place.

Um we know all of us we are in public service, so certainly we are here to serve the public, so it's not an intention to make it that you know, we're trying to put up a barrier or you know, you know, limit our service to the public.

We will be doing the same tasks and the same functioning really in the same way.

Um, but it would offer a level of protection um for employees um to feel safer and more secure um in the workspace.

So um with that, I don't know, Joe.

Do you want to talk a little about the specifics of those four elements?

Yeah, absolutely.

Um Joe Welter, facilities and construction manager in engineering.

Um just to kind of touch on a little bit more detail on the topics that Rebecca mentioned.

Um, the access control we're looking at, um, some card readers here on first floor, um, securing, like she said, staff circulation spaces, um, and then picking up additional camera locations that kind of have some soft spots or some blind spots in them right now.

Um so predominantly it would be the double doors here down on the main floor as well as the back employee stairwell.

Um, we would be looking to add a door that is access controlled in engineering between the staff circulation area and the public counter.

And then the last one would be um up on third floor, they would have staff or employee controlled access into the uh mayor's and city administrators space.

So they'd have essentially just for commonality, it'd be basically a ring doorbell, and then staff inside would be able to pull that video up, authorize that person to enter the space and be able to control access that way.

Um exterior barriers that we're looking at, um, fencing and screening for the gas connection here at City Hall, and then also bollards and vehicle protection at access points into the building as well.

Um the door numbering that Rebecca had mentioned.

Um large part of that is the exterior access points of the building, um, large, easily identifiable, easily readable um letter or numbering on the outside of the building.

So if there is an emergency inside the building, someone has a medical emergency or something's going on.

Um that that call to emergency services can be hey, I'm at door, I'm at city hall, we're closest door is door seven, and emergency services can dispatch to that door.

Um the other piece of that is the internal signage here.

Um it's it's fairly incons inconsistent across uh city hall where I think uh what our audit showed roughly 50 signs don't show any kind of room numbering whatsoever.

Um those are some of the key ones would be like mayor's office, city administrators' office, director's offices.

A lot of times it just says their title, and there's no other reference to where they're at in the building.

Uh so we'd be looking to pick that up as well.

And then the last one being the um clerk's desk and engineering community development.

Um that would be a ballistic rated glass and wall assembly um propped up to take care of a high level of ballistics.

Um and and that um price would also include the design and implementation of that.

Um but if you have any questions, I'm I'm happy to answer anything that you do have.

But that's the general gist of what we're looking to accomplish.

All right, the Chief Thompson, the police department.

Uh thank you for having me here.

So I'm here because I'm really passionate about uh this.

I actually were talking about putting up uh glass in front of the corner back there for at least a few years.

I've been talking to the city that we need to do this.

The reason why I'm passionate about it is I'll give you a couple examples is um my prior life work in the Milwaukee.

A gentleman came in uh and took a handgun to start firing shots into the district station.

Thank goodness that no one was hurt, but I can tell you what happened right after that.

They put class up uh protect uh civil workers that are working inside the police department.

We have clerks that are working here every day with the political climate that we're living in today.

Um heated.

Uh I strongly believe that we need to keep our uh member safety class will act as return to do that.

As far as the numbering, I'll give you an example why to me that is very critical as well.

Number nose doors is at the C Temple when that happened.

Um we're trying to get identified locations.

So I was there about 35 minutes after that incident, and we knew we still have people inside the of the building.

We had to take uh one of the surviving presidents, we had to draw on a piece of paper, a map.

That's not the time place you want to do that.

Haven't those numbers getting persponders to threat or for someone in uh injured uh quicker, more efficiently, is gonna save lives.

So, what we're doing here, uh the cost is what we're talking about is the safety of our employees.

That's what we're talking about here.

So I just wanted to firstly come here and say that.

So uh, as you all know, I used to own a gas station, and in 1995, when we remodeled, it's just a lonely gas station, but we have bulletproof glass, we have the steel concrete reinforced bollards around the entire building so that a car can't crash through.

Um we never had any problems, but since 1995, we had three incidents, and those came into um uh good use.

So I'm in favor of security upgrades, and I was surprised that they weren't done earlier because there are the one half of a percent of the people ruin it for the rest.

And I think that uh the public is knowledgeable enough throughout town to see the security systems that businesses and uh government has put in.

Um I've looked at the need and I think it's there.

My only question is is why are we doing this today through this budget change?

And I'm comfortable with the cost rather than putting it in the CIP budget that's gonna be passed in a month and a half, and that's Joe.

You could maybe answer that for me.

I can't, I mean, I guess I don't know, and maybe Rebecca knows of the reasoning for the timing uh as opposed to waiting until 2027 to do this.

Um I will at least let you know that uh if you read in the memo, we talk about uh having uh basically cash on hand, accumulated interest earnings from 2025 and what's occurred in 2026 as well.

So we already have the cash on hand to handle this situation, and that's the reason.

That's probably the biggest reason why is if it's a risk or a concern that we want to address.

We have we have cash on hand currently to deal with it.

So um that's part of when we do if this budget amendment passes, it will be using basically the existing fund balance or reserves because we have it.

Yeah, and just to reiterate, so we it part of the I mean the timing is really that these incidences have continued to occur, and we reached out to the police department, they finished their analysis, we were at public works.

This is the time that we have it all ready to present to you, and we honestly don't want to wait because it is employee safety and security, you know.

And as we said, people employees have resigned because they felt like we haven't you know taken action to protect them, honestly.

So um, we don't we don't want to wait um if we're able to do it now, um, because these are important.

I mean, we feel I feel personally it's important for employees that that we are we are protecting them and sending a message that we do care about these concerns.

So just one last question, then I understand now that if we put it in the budget, it doesn't get done until 27 after approved and bids and all of that stuff.

But does this leave our cash balance or fund in any kind of jeopardy?

Uh are we uh lowering it too much in your opinion?

Uh for the most part, when we think of our capital projects fund, um the float that would ever be in that fund is accumulated interest earnings.

Uh where we really want to stress where we have uh dedicated reserves, it's really in our operating funds because that deals with those one-time costs that we don't plan for.

Um capital fund is already related to one-time cost, but it's part of a a grander plan.

And we do utilize um these earnings for a number of things, things that come up like this.

But also if you know uh bids are coming in higher than we anticipated in the budget process, uh we can also we have some flexibility by utilizing these funds as well.

Uh so far, at least from a grand scheme of things, it appears that a lot of things are are at least coming within budget or close to budget, and are if we've been able to maneuver within existing budgets for our current projects, which is why this these funds are available for this type of thing.

Are there any questions from the committee or Alderman and uh Christine?

Yes.

Excuse me.

I don't know the best way to put this, but is this being reactionary to one or two people?

I would say this is being proactive.

Um because reason why I say proactive, Chris was a great example.

November 21 of 21, we'll never forget it.

We'll never go back to that day, right?

How we do things?

So I see we're being proactive before something happens.

No, it does, it does.

I'm just no, no, very quick.

Yeah, and because before these instances happened, I was actually addressing this before these were taking place.

And I think when these instances started increasing, that's what prompted us to actually do the threat assessment and get us to where we are today.

Um I'm in the mindset of if we have an opportunity to be proactive.

I say we'd be proactive or I I agree.

But I don't want to think it'd be no, no, I understand.

I understand that.

And and I guess another question would be uh how are we protecting then all public-facing city employees?

We have the ones behind the clerks desk now.

What about um I don't know, water utility?

I don't even know if these other places have people walking into their buildings.

Are we going to do similar projects for them as well?

I might be able to answer.

I just had the opportunity to tour the new water building, and yes, they have they have uh ballistic proof class going through the front counter and they have restricted access, you can only get to a certain point.

The numbering is everything there that did come up.

I struck that I was like, this is a very big robust wall in there.

So if the water utility building is my comment would be we're doing this now, it technically has a little bit more cost involved if you do it as a retro.

I I don't I don't know what we do.

I know we don't anticipate building a new city hall anytime soon.

God, I hope not.

Um, but you know, I think this should be incorporated into protocol for new future buildings as we go that are owned on by the city as well.

But yes, it is incorporated into water utility.

I know that for a fact.

And that was actually gonna be my third question is why wasn't this we put the glass for the court when we built the building?

Why wasn't it included up front when the building was built?

I don't know that any of us can say directly why it wasn't done at the time.

I know we can all look back and say it should have, I mean, it probably should have been done, it should have been part of the project.

Um from what we you know know, obviously the city administrator wasn't city ministry at the time.

I wasn't as involved in the you know the project.

But um, so uh what we I mean it obviously wasn't done for various reasons.

Um municipal courts, you know, really push for it at the time.

This building was seen at the time as more secure.

I I don't know how many of you were in the old city hall, the old city hall, you could literally walk, you know, right in and sit at the mayor's desk without ever having gone through a locked door.

So this building at the time was seen as taking some steps towards security, you know, at least most employ like some employee areas were behind locked doors, and so some of that was a balance at the time because some people felt like even that was going, you know, the mayor's up on the third floor now, and you know, there were all kinds of conversations about those kinds of things.

So I think it was thought as you know, we were we took some we took steps, we thought, you know, to make security enhancements, but obviously now looking back, should we have done more?

I think probably um, but unfortunately we can't we can't go back, we can only look forward.

So then one last question.

As far as the construction of the ballistic glass goes, is it the entirety of the opening now, or will walls be built out?

Because I'm I'm assuming that a wall would be cheaper to build than the glass.

I'm just asking, I don't know, yeah, for sure.

Yeah, I I think we'll vet that out as part of the design process.

Um the intent would be to maintain the same level of service.

So we'd want to make sure we have the same number of counters, the same capability to serve the public.

Um, but obviously through the design process, we'll look to to accomplish that as efficiently as possible.

Thank you.

So my question at my former gas station still work there.

The security glass goes all the way up to the ceiling, uh to the panels there.

Uh, you go into some banks and their security glasses, maybe this tall over the counter.

Somebody could jump over that.

So I'm sure that this will be high enough where somebody can't just jump over and still gain access.

Yes, the intent would be to have the protection from floor to ceiling.

Okay, and one last comment.

Uh I was here against the building of this city hall.

I ran on that seven years ago.

But I want listened to a lot of the comments as to why that was left open.

They did not want to make it feel unwelcoming was the comment at the time.

So they thought that security-wise, those gates metal gates could push a button and close them, but I didn't agree that that was fast enough to prevent an incident.

So I'm in favor of tightening up the security.

Uh I went to uh Sturgeon Bay this last weekend, and I was happy to see that they put the security bollards down for even the farmers market, they were brand new, so this must have been something that they thought of as things are getting worse too.

And I and I think that um, you know, we we do need to big beef that up.

My concern was just budget-wise, and I'm I'm okay with that.

So I'd be in in favor of this, and we'll let everybody else speak, including Mike, if he wishes to thank you.

Um Rebecca, you actually made me think a little bit more of I didn't even think about employee retention.

I noticed about every department here is not only facing employee retention, but employee hiring.

You brought up a very good point.

The numbering, the ballards, I agree with all of that.

Any private small school church.

Any building of any size has gone through great lengths just to make sure that the numbers are read on the inside and outside reflective vinyl, so you can see them at night.

That's more of a statement.

Has this already been like put to uh bids out so you have approximate idea?

Uh we have we have gotten pricing for the security glass, the design effort there, uh the access control as well.

Um for the lettering and the numbering, um, those are more budgetary numbers.

I think um more more likely than not they'll be made out in our sign shop.

So um that'll likely be interior um expenditures there.

Um and then the rest is based off the unit prices with Department of Public Works.

The 3M reflective vinyl is great at night.

Um looking at that area over there, it looks pretty secure right now with that stainless steel or whatever that decorative metal cladding is closed.

Is it possible we could just close that and put a hole in the drywall and then put some window over there?

Just a thought.

I think I think it would be possible.

Um I think one of the main factors in the approach we're taking is to try and keep that same level of service while being able to protect our employees.

Um I think one of the interesting things about that security curtain is although it looks super defensible, right?

Um when it does close, there's sensors that doesn't allow it to close immediately immediately.

So you get three three chances that if it bumps something, it'll retract and then it'll bump it again before it finally forces its way through.

So there's security features in that that would reduce the security we're uh uh able to provide our our staff.

So um, you know, I think I think we looked at that, but I think this was was a preferred option to maintain that level of service.

My suggestion was just leave it closed and looking at a lot of drywall over there, and I think they have two windows over there.

We could put four windows in.

I would guess well under $70,000 that just has that been looked at at all.

Maybe architecturally can't be done.

We can bring it up as part of that design effort too.

I don't believe in maybe Chief Thompson can speak to it more, but I don't believe there's any ballistic qualities to that.

So I didn't mean the okay, I apologize.

Yeah.

That is mainly to protect property.

So securing property where the glass is protecting people.

So in right now, just major discussions for the people part of it, because that's not gonna be protecting people.

It was just something I was thinking at lunch today.

Today when I was reading all this, and then the other thing is to protect the people.

This is a very large facility.

I was not a fan of it six, seven years ago.

Perhaps we could move the people.

Would that be an even bigger cost savings?

Because I think then it does at least used to have to pay bills upstairs uh in the old building.

I mean, we we do still provide a level of service.

So the clerk charger's office, for instance.

I mean, they're handling taxes and voting, and there are a lot of people that come through during those time frames.

So I mean, that's part of why the glass is proposed as well, because we still need the counter space, we're still using all those workstations.

Um, I mean, there are a lot of people funneling through during those times.

So we still are are here to serve the public.

So we're trying to find again, find that balance of being able to effectively serve while still providing some level of protection.

Thank you.

I didn't have an agenda when coming here, and you certainly, as I already stated, changed it, put into the uh the uh employee retention.

You know, I I work in a place that's very violent and mostly open to the public with not very good security from 1971.

So that's pretty much all I had.

Everything is a great idea and very attainable.

It was just the cost, and if there's any other ideas, I just want to know if those were explored.

You can still keep everybody over there.

They have two windows, put four windows in.

I know Rick really would hate to see some of that artwork go in the hallway because he's a big fan of our work.

But maybe we could put more artwork somewhere else.

Just something to explore.

Thank you.

Mike?

Yeah, yeah.

One other comment, you just reminded me of something.

We have two elections this year, then tax season comes.

Um how does that affect the timeline for construction?

Yeah, I think um some of the some of these things on the list here, I think we can begin to implement very quickly.

Um the last, probably the piece that's gonna take the longest is the the security glass.

Um, there is gonna be a design effort yet that we have not yet started.

Um, and then obviously the timing is gonna have to be uh very delicate to fit in between taxis and in between elections, in between assessments, these times when we've got high usage down here.

Um obviously we're also gonna have to look at some staff relocation during the implementation of this.

So um I think we're gonna have to kind of shoehorn this project in where it fits and and make sure we're very tight on our schedule.

But I I do think it's very doable.

Thank you.

Doreen.

Um I'm in favor of the of the proposal.

I have no issue with the amount of money.

I did quite a bit of research on um other municipalities and counties that have spent money making more security in their buildings.

Um, interestingly enough, Dane County spent 12 million dollars um updating their clerk's area.

Um also Milwaukee County is spending quite a bit to update the security at some of their buildings as well.

Um there's some other states that were spending money um on that.

So I I think $300 plus thousand dollars compared to a $12 million price tag to me is really a drop in the bucket.

So I have no problem with that.

I also feel that just design aspect, I feel that there needs to be some uniformity.

We already have the municipal court already with that glass.

It doesn't make any sense to me.

Why would we do something different over there?

I mean, to me, you know, what we need to make it uniform to let those people know that we care about their safety.

And I think eclectically, too, just for the artistic and uniformity of building, it needs to look the same, in my opinion.

Um, so I'm all in favor of doing what we do for the municipal court.

They're 20 feet away.

So if somebody wants to shoot somebody, uh they could easily turn around and just do the clerk.

I mean, come on.

Um, and I was reading a couple of articles on um line where there was interviews with clerks in general that all are saying that there is uh more uh threats to their lives.

People say stupid things, they're carrying a gun, they're carrying a knife, they don't like in this political climate.

You've got people that say things during voting, they don't like their taxes.

Who's the first person they're gonna yell at is the person behind the counter.

And interestingly enough, I've been dealing with the situation the last couple of days, and I've been working with the clerk's office because it requires a permit situation.

And um the person I was dealing with on the phone told me that this particular person who's been in for permits has threatened them with a gun in the past.

Um, and this was just today that I spoke to the clerk about it.

So I feel that the urgency to get this done needs to happen, and I respect what you said, Chief Dan, about being a proactive rather than reactive.

We do not need to be doing this, and someone has died already.

And to me, there is no price tag that's worth more than the lives of the city workers that work for us.

Um we're service people, and I just feel that um I the work you guys have done regarding the research in the glass to me, this is such a small price tag compared to what other municipalities have placed.

So I'm fully in support of it.

Can I make a motion to go ahead and approve um move this for approval?

Can I do that?

Thank you.

To recommend amending the capital budget by allocating three hundred and nineteen thousand dollars for the city hall security improvements project, and I'll need a second.

I'll second that motion.

Can you I see that uh yes?

That exact amount.

I mean, is that what we are doing?

That's the amount that we're asking for to amend the budget.

We still are gonna have contracts that are approved and all that will that will come forward because this would have to be a bid project.

So just this is just to get the funding available so that we can amend the budget and then we still go through the channels to get these things uh handled uh appropriately.

Okay, thank you.

Question Mike?

Yes, I know it's already had a second, but uh Alder Anderson uh brought up the other thing of you know it's hot out every city garage.

Uh you know, I've worked in municipal type settings.

We open up the doors, you know, we have them out on a hot day, a nicer day.

I don't know, is this something that we would consider just with all?

You know, not in uh such an urgent matter as this, but is that just something we could look at district wide, just even simple numbers long as we're cut and vinyl, maybe do the same uh security risk at all our our our facilities throughout Walker Shell.

That was it.

Thank you.

Okay, seeing that we have a motion and a second, we'll do a voice uh vote.

Go ahead.

Widjerson aye.

Anderson I Matthew Zy.

Lemke, I that passes four to zero.

Thank you on that.

Uh seeing that there are no more business items.

Uh any commute communications or referrals.

I I have some communications if you'd like to hear those first.

Um so our next scheduled meeting is for Tuesday, July 14th.

I do anticipate at this point having that meeting, just so you all know we might have a visitor for uh giving a presentation uh from our state legislature.

Uh that's what I've heard up to this point, but we're still waiting to get full confirmation on that.

Um so that's the next scheduled meeting.

Uh the the other items I wanted to mention is we have internally begun our budget process.

Uh the capital, the CIP uh portion of that um in administration and finance, and then all directors uh have been working on their requests for capital items.

Uh so we're kicking it off.

I wanted to at least remind uh everyone that might be listening or watch the video and everyone here tonight that uh the first uh capital budget meeting that we have on the schedule is uh Tuesday, August 25th at the city garage where we generally do our show and tell for all of the the fleet related items, and we do give a a short high-level presentation of what is proposed for uh this year's or the 2027 CIP.

So just wanted to make sure that that was definitely on everyone's calendar and that everyone can uh hopefully make it.

So that is that's the first big uh finance committee meeting related to the 27 budget cycle.

So just wanted to make sure everyone was aware of it.

And uh that's all I have for tonight.

And I just wanted to make a comment uh about referrals.

We went to the open house management skills training that would that Tony put on, and there was a management consultant came in and he recommended that we give all referrals to Tony.

So I did that didn't come out yet, but that's just something that I heard maybe coming along because he wants to direct them right to instead of giving them to the clerk.

So but uh that'll be coming.

So I I don't have any referrals today.

Does anybody have any others?

Oh uh seeing that there's no more business uh or questions uh I move to adjourn.

Any objections we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.