The City of Waukesha Finance Committee met on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, at 6:00 PM in Council Chambers. The committee unanimously approved contracting with Waukesha County for property tax listing responsibilities. The primary focus of the meeting was a thorough review, debate, and recommendation of the 2027-2031 Community Investment Program (CIP), a $179.5 million five-year capital plan. Following public testimony, departmental presentations, and a series of amendments, the committee voted 5-0 to recommend the amended CIP to the Common Council.
1. Contract with Waukesha County for Property Tax Listing (ID#26-04210) Samuel Walker, City Assessor, presented a proposed contract for the county to handle property listing responsibilities. The contract is valued at roughly $47,700 annually, which would be offset by savings from a reduced part-time city lister position, resulting in a net savings of approximately $700 in the first year. The committee discussed how the contract aligns with goals of intergovernmental cooperation. A motion to approve carried unanimously (5-0).
2. 2027-2031 Community Investment Program (ID#26-04269) Finance staff Joe Shiro and Tony Brown presented the proposed five-year plan, totaling $179.5 million ($40.6 million for 2027). The plan aims to keep the capital levy increase under 3%. Department heads presented their major projects.
The committee took the following votes on motions:
The Common Council will consider the CIP at its September 15 meeting. The next Finance Committee meeting is scheduled for September 29, 2026, with operating budget reviews on October 13 and 15.
Dan brown book that was the no, it's like one of the one of the later ones. One that I think is the most recent movie about uh pretty good view. But that was why YouTube is all we can get people just dumping all point for hours off here. Download the US counselor to a USB trying to listen to Sun Zoo theory more on an audio book called driving medicine. Um I've got my book of uh teaching much of it. Also for uh tomorrow I would make sure I'll report for that we'll be from the same. Are you a physical one reader or are you a digital one? Yeah. I I want it I want to use a code, but after holding an iPad too much, I like minor like I've got a string right here. So I'm like, all right, I'll use a Kindle and then I've got like a little ring that's on the back of it so I can pull that to that. I can like all this. So the routines. Yeah, that's hard. I know it's cool. Good evening everyone. We'll call the Tuesday, September 8th, 2026 meeting of the Finance Committee to order. We do have a quorum. Next item on our agenda is the Pledge Allegiance. Please rise. All right. Next item on our agenda is public comment. Are there any members of the public that wish to address the finance committee this evening? And Melissa, if you if you could give us your name and street address, and the floor is yours, and you have three minutes. Okay, great. Um Melissa Baxter, I'm the president of the Waukeshaw County Community Foundation. My street address is S four five W two seven seven one one Elk Valley Road, Waukeshaw, Wisconsin, five three one eight nine. Um so I just uh came tonight to provide some context and information about the Jackson Sparks Baseball Park Project Fund, which is um part of the proposal to view um for a park improvement or athletic complex improvement. So the fund itself was created on April 20th, 2022 to honor Jackson Sparks, who is a youth baseball player killed in the Waxhaw Christmas parade attack. Um community members created the fund uh with the support and coordination of Wakkeshaw Parks and Rec and the Sparks family. Um and total raised uh to date is a hundred and a little more than 165,000. So 16520491. There are no fees on this fund, uh similar to the fund that we held for the victims and for the parade memorial. So there's no ongoing fees that are coming off of that. Um there have been ninety-one total donors, um, and some major donor list, those are contributors of five thousand dollars or more, includes the Brewers Community Foundation, the Fodge family, Husco International, Waukeshaw Bank, Waukeshaw State Bank, and Orthopedic Associates. Um the initial goal was was much larger. Um and uh quite frankly, with other projects that uh were all created around the same time. Uh I think there was a little bit of donor fatigue. Um, but we do have several folks who have contributed to this project and would love to see it go forward in some way. Uh and so had some great conversations with Ron earlier this year about how perhaps the city could be a partner and we could provide that funding to help uh tell bring something uh to honor Jackson uh in his memory um to come. So appreciate you your consideration. Thank you. Yes, sir. And if you could give us your name and address and you have three minutes. Uh flood mitigation effort. And I appreciate that the Deer Path project has been identified for design and construction and recognize the competing demands within the city's capital program. Um but we ask um, you know, the the materials, the the the mitigation plan uh that was done last year. Identify um care characterize this as a health safety and property protection priority that cannot be deferred. Um design is already proposed for 2027 and there's tentative grant support that would mitigate much of this cost. Um so the only ask here would be uh th for the city to return with kind of a concrete alternative for completing construction in 2027 rather than accepting 2028 without fully evaluating any acceleration of that plan. It's a known risk.