It's six o'clock and I'd like to call the third regular meeting of the 2020-2021 Common Council to order. Would the clerk please read the quote for the day? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience. Thank you very much. Please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it spans, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Next is the approval of the minutes from our April 27th Common Council meeting. All the person will thank you mayor and make a motion to approve. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion on the minutes? Seeing none with all those in favor please signify by saying aye. Motion passes. Next our clerk is going to give the take the roll call. All the person born here. Donnie he was here. All the person Felde is here. All the person Ackley here. All the person Phillips. All the person Decker is here. All the person Sorensen. Here. All the person Slovaklio. All the person Wolf is here. All the person Mitchell. Here. There are 10 present. Thank you. Next is Mayor's appointments. Those that will lie over till our next Common Council meeting. Is there any public forum? No one this evening. Okay. Next our Council Vice President will make an announcement regarding the retirement of City Administrator Hufflin and the process for hiring a successor. All the person Donnie here. Thanks Mayor and I'm going to tag team this with Vicki Schneider our Acting Director of Human Resources and Labor Relations. As Vice President of the Council it has come to me to facilitate the process of looking for our next City Administrator. What I'd like to do with Vicki's assistance is to run through for the Alders what the process is that we contemplate in place right now. First of all and we are going to constitute a hiring committee. At this point it will be Mike Mayor van der Steen me and Alder Sorensen who is Chair of the Committee of the Whole and of course we will need the assistance of Chuck Adams our City Attorney and Vicki Schneider our HR Director. We are in the process of updating the Administrator profile and the job description. Daryl Hufflin has told us that the job description at this point from his perspective looks good and we may be making smaller additions but we hope to have that profile ready and out in just in a second Vicki's going to talk about our plan to to distribute that profile and information. So I've had the opportunity in the past when an important leader in an organization leaves to look at from an interim process where the organization has been where it is now and where we look to go. Because our timeframe is extremely short we don't have the opportunity for a lot of naval gazing as it were but our intent at this point is to meet individually with department heads to get their feedback on what they're now that the opportunity is presented itself what they're looking for in terms of a city administrator what's gone wrong what's gone right I will suggest to you mostly everything has gone quite right but it's always good for an organization to reflect on how business is being done and think about better if there are ways of doing business. So we're going to be setting those appointments up in the near future. Now I'm springing this on Alders and depending on your response in terms of attendance we are also looking at having a relatively brief but altogether closed session this Wednesday at 6 p.m. I'm going to suggest a virtual meeting so that we don't imperil anybody more than we need to coming in to ask those very same questions what are you looking for in a city administrator are there qualities that we should be focusing on and just to get input now because we are kind of springing that on Alders at the last minute here again because time is of the essence I'm hoping we can pull that meeting off and and have a good conversation Chuck will be with us to make sure that we stand closed session topics and don't wander into into open session concerns but again with that body of knowledge from the people who are very important to the functioning of the city department heads Alders of course everyone is important but the leadership I think getting that information getting feedback getting people thinking about what it is they're looking for will be really important the the next step is to get that application out is to to get the information out and to do it as quickly as we can reasonably do it Vicki has been through this a lot more than I and I'm just going to turn it over to you Vicki if you'll thank you working with partners in the human resources department to again review the job description we are prepared to post that tomorrow morning we're looking at the various job posting sites we will do typically we will use indeed which will funnel all of these should funnel into neogov which is our way of collecting applicants we are looking at obviously linked in and our other social media outlets WCMA which is the Wisconsin City and County Managers Association we're looking at posting on the League of Wisconsin municipalities also on WAPALRA which stands for Wisconsin Public Employer Labor Relations Association we have relationships with these if there was anything that we would want to do nationally or in a broader scope we also have the ICMA we could look at international the City Managers Association it really is dependent on how far out we want to go as an organization but we will get these out tomorrow morning on the on the websites that I listed just now the position we have reviewed we will keep the position open until filled we're looking at a first review date if we have this open to candidates by tomorrow as the first review date would be May 26th the pay grade is going to be in the range as it states per the conversations I've had with you Mary Lynn so that we can get this posted but knowing that that is also open for negotiation very good thank you the that may May 26th state is aggressive but again our timeline needs to be extremely aggressive and we think we can do it back in 2016 we mailed a lot of position descriptions a nice brochure making you really want to come to Sheboygan and so forth we think that we can save money by using electronic resources and of course I think Vicki correct me if I'm wrong that has become sort of the normal way of doing business as opposed to mailing things out and posting in newspapers and paying money for things is that correct that is true some of these job sites may have fees attached to them as well depending on what we're looking for and looking at how broadly we want to put this out we do have a process in place to update the document that was used in 2016 so that's that's being worked on and we can do a mailing if we feel that is necessary very good very good we think that this position will be attractive in the past four years I think it's fair to say that we have professionalized our city government structure and performance we have an adequate balance sheet I would say and and I think that we will be an attractive position of course doing this in the time of COVID is going to be a substantial challenge but we're going to just plow forward once those hopefully applications have been received we're going to farm up to interview our choices the precise structure of the interview process and so forth hasn't really been determined but I think that we will that we will hopefully have good candidates to interview and and be able to present someone to you so that a July 1st starting date is realistic and as my mom used to say God willing in the creeks don't rise you know things should be we should be well on our way so we're happy to answer any questions but again just to emphasize that this is the beginning part of a process and the mechanical parts I think are in good are in good place but away we go thank you very much I appreciate the information next we'll move on to mayor's announcements first of all I just want to talk a little bit about our garbage carts today the city started their garbage collection with the new garbage carts I want to say thanks to all of our residents for trying to find new places to to put those carts in their yard and their garages I know that took a little bit of a challenge but hopefully everybody's going to find this is a much better way to conduct our our garbage collection the meet public library has made some changes based on Governor Evers new order and they are now offering curbside pickup of materials they asked for you first to request a book online or give them a call or another library material then to wait for a confirmation from them to tell you that your order is ready then after that please call them to schedule your pickup time and then stop at that time at the mead front main entrance so that they can get that to you the frisbee disc golf course at ball rest park was open this last Friday so it's good to have two courses handling the interest in playing that sport as part of the cares act the city received extra community development block grant funds and last meeting council approved a $400,000 job retention forgivable microloan fund this fund is going to be focused on small businesses from one to five employees that have not been able to access other needed federal assistance and loans between $3,000 and $15,000 will be awarded and we expect that we should be able to help between 28 and 30 businesses with loans on Friday May 8th there's going to be a live stream of the Sheboygan County strong Facebook live concert this is going to be a concert on Facebook it's co-sponsored by the Sheboygan area United Way in the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce and it'll feature a local band called BBMC and it'll be live streamed from the limelight pubs so I hope you can take that in and due to coronavirus concerns the city of Sheboygan is canceled the 4th of July parade in the Freedom Fest entertainment at the land park and also the Venetian boat parade a final decision will be made on the festival fireworks on June 1st so stay tuned for that and remember to stay safer at home where you're masking public try to keep a six foot distance and keep gatherings to 10 people or less thank you next we'll move on to the consent agenda that'll include items 2.2 through 2.6 older person wolf thank you mayor I make them make a motion motion to receive and file all our O's receive all our C's and adopt all resolutions and ordinances thank you for that motion in support is there any discussion on the consent agenda seen none will the clerk please call the roll ten eyes motion passes next move on to resolutions item 4.1 is resolution number 10 of 2021 the older person sorenson and Decker authorized an expenditure of funds received as part of the criminal justice law enforcement drug trafficking response grants solicitation older person sorenson thank you mr. mayor I move to suspend the rules and adopt the resolution is there any objection to suspension seeing none then we have a motion on the floor to adopt the rules and the resolution and we have a second under discussion is there any discussion seeing none will the clerk please call the roll for passage ten eyes motion passes item 4.2 is resolution number 11 of 2021 by older person wolf and Donahue to retain the provider relief fund deposit made to the city of Sheboygan by the Department of Health and Human Services regarding COVID-19 older person wolf thank you mayor I'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules is there any objection to suspension seen none please proceed thank you mayor I'd like to make a motion to adopt the resolution thank you for that motion in support that motions on the floor is there any discussion mayor I have a question go ahead go ahead thank you thank you mayor I noticed when I was reading this over that the amount is twenty six thousand nine hundred and thirty one dollars and fifty seven cents and I also looked over the document and how we've got a comply with this all of the all of the hoops that we have to go through my question is who who of our teams is going to have the task of complying with this and boy I tell you it really looks very burdensome for twenty six thousand dollars I'll ask our finance director Marty Halverson to respond thank you mayor older person born it's a good question that you bring up it is something that myself and Thomas Cameron our assistant city attorney had been discussing the pros and cons of these dollars versus other dollars that are available for relief the benefit of these dollars is they were sent immediately so we we have them already which based on feedback from other finance directors that I heard in a webinar I was on as well as other city officials we've found that in the past sometimes the FEMA money can take months and possibly up to years to receive so the twenty six thousand now is a big plus tracking it we believe because it's not a large dollar amount we already have expended almost six thousand dollars worth of ambulance PPE equipment and we have worked with assistant chief Chuck Butler to identify other future expenditures related to PPE equipment as well as a possible additional fit testing apparatus which certainly can be beneficial right now we only have one of those and the n95 testing then is not being done as quickly as it could so we don't believe that there will be a difficulty in trying to allocate or track just up to twenty six thousand dollars and these dollars are a hundred percent the cities then as well which in most of the other funding agreements here it's usually a cost share of some somewhere around twenty five seventy five or fifty fifty or ninety ten but this is a hundred percent ours and the dollar value we believe we can spend and track easily thanks for that information is there any other follow-up Alderperson born no that's fine thank you is there any other discussion seeing none will the clerk please call the roll ten eyes motion passes item 4.3 is resolution number 12 of 2021 by Alderperson's Wolf and Donahue authorizing retaining outside legal counsel to represent the city regarding claim 24-19 from Axley Burleson LLP on behalf of Audrey Brubaker including any litigation related there to an authorizing payment of said services Alderperson Wolf thank you mayor I'd like to suspend the rules is there any objection to suspension seeing none please proceed thank you mayor I'd like to make a motion to adopt the resolution thank you for that motion in support is there any discussion on the motion mayor this is Alderman Jim born again I have a question on this one also please proceed thank you mayor attorney Adams when I read over when I read this over yesterday it didn't really given a description of what this case is about so I'm wondering if you could just tell us what this case pertains to and then also I'm also wondering if we should consider putting a cap on these fees do you have any idea of what this is going to cost to defend thank you city attorney can you respond yes this is the case involving the garbage truck and the collision with the child on the bicycle so that's where that is as far as a cap on cost I do not include that on this this is this is a defense case we have to defend it in any case you know and we do have experience this attorney has done this work before for us in these sensitive kinds of cases including the situation with a student from Tower Academy and his fees also are included then as part of the insurance coverage that we have I mean we have a significant amount we're gonna have to pay up but if it's beyond that we do have insurance coverage for it any follow-up older person boring well I'm just wondering attorney Adams you know I hate to go into something that's open ended and I realize the importance of the case is there is there a way that you could maybe give us a progress report as just as this proceed with how much it's costing us I can do that thank you is there any other discussion seeing none will the clerk please call a roll ten eyes motion passes item 4.4 is resolution number 13 of 2021 by Alderperson's Wolf and Sorensen extending the deadline for payment of assessments to benefited properties against which assessments were proposed for the parking assessment districts one two four and five Alderperson Wolf thank you mayor I'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules is there any objection to suspension see none please proceed thank you mayor I'd like to make a motion to adopt the resolution thanks for that motion in support is there any discussion on the motion Chad Pelle check I just want to state that the purpose for this resolution is we've heard from a number of business owners in these parking assessment districts and albeit that the assessments are higher because of the costs incurred in those districts a number of the business owners have said that it's going to be hard because they haven't had any cash flow to pay that by June 1st so the discussion came up as to could we extend it out and as long as we can get paid before the end of the year and cat and categorize it in this year's revenue accounts it seemed like it would be alright so that's where the September 1st date came from to allow these businesses to get back operational and hopefully get some cash flow in order to make these payments thank you for those comments is there any other discussion see none will the clerk please call the roll ten eyes motion passes next is item 4.5 resolution number 14 of 2021 by Alderperson's Wolf and Donahue authorizing an extension of the deadline for the payment of quarterly room tax payments Alderperson Wolf thank you mayor I'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules is there any objection to suspension seeing none please proceed thank you I'd like to make a motion to adopt the resolution thank you for that motion in support is there any discussion on the motion mayor I have a question on this one please yes go ahead thank you mayor this would be a question for Chad Chad with these hotels motels that those type of establishments with the room tax are they required to put those room tax dollars in a separate account and then just pay us every quarter or do you know if they go into just general revenue and then at the end of the quarter they give us a they write us a check I'm just wondering whether there has to be a separation of those room tax dollars from their general revenue to speak about what the hoteliers do and how they do it I'm not sure they file a report with the department with the finance department over what their revenues are and then they have time to pay that so how they do it on their end I'm not quite sure it gets paid to the finance department and then the finance department collects it 70% gets turned over to the shabuagan room tax commission who then turns it over to visit shabuagan and 30% stays for the city but how they handle it in each of the establishments I'm not quite sure if I could just if I could just follow up and and I certainly sympathize with the lodging facilities that we have around shabuagan but the room tax is collected for the people that are staying there regardless how many people are staying there so I I would imagine they've already collected the money and if they already have that money and it's in there supposed to set it aside for room tax I don't understand actually why they can't pay it to answer that question I think it's really comes down to a cash flow issue the fact that they shut down in the middle number of them shut down in the middle of March and still paid some employees and those types of expenses we're not talking about a lot of requests here I think we've gotten payment from the majority of them except for two hotel establishments and one of them which is the larger one plans to pay before the May 31st deadline so this is really a cash flow issue of getting operational again on their end and having some cash to pay it because I think they probably use the cash that they collected to offset other expenses during the start of COVID thank you I wasn't aware that we had some that actually closed down I understand now thank you is there any other discussion mr. Mayor this is Ryan I just a follow-up relative follow-up question for that so our so some of the hotels that have closed on are they still required to pay some portion of the well the ones that closed down wouldn't have any people staying in their room so they wouldn't be collecting any revenues to pay that so the the few that have closed down with the largest one being Blue Harbor you know I think the revenues are the delay in the revenues is really just a cash flow side of their you know their performer that they're just asking for a couple week delay because blue and the case of Blue Harbor they've closed down for a month and a half but you know to say do they have the funding if if they had nobody staying there nobody would have paid the tax is there any other discussion finance director Marty Harold Wilson Alderborn one other item that we have heard that could play a factor in this is during the COVID pandemic some of the staff have you know sometimes that are responsible for the accounting methods and or processing the the reconciliation of all of the the transactions might not be in the office as timely as well so it might not always come down to cash flow I think that is probably some instances but there could also be a staffing issue for them to file a accurate and complete return and make the payment to us so it's really hard to pinpoint exactly all of those but we're certainly going to follow up we do we did receive several payments right on the last day which is traditionally what most of them do so we're not overly concerned that there's a abuse taking place here thank you for those comments is there any other discussion see none will the clerk please call the roll ten eyes motion passes item 4.6 is resolution number 15 of 2021 by Alderperson's wolf in Donahue authorizing the appropriate city officials to execute an intergovernmental agreement for law enforcement services for the 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee Wisconsin between the city of Milwaukee and the city of Sheboygan Alderperson wolf thank you mayor make a motion to suspend the rules is there any objection to suspension see none please proceed thank you mayor I make a motion to adopt the resolution thank you for that motion in support is there any discussion on the motion see none will the clerk please call the roll ten eyes motion passes item 4.7 through 4.11 will be referred to various committees under reports of committees item 5.1 is RC number 4 of 2021 by the finance and personnel committee to whom was referred resolution number 4 of 2021 by Alderperson's Donahue and borne authorizing the appropriate city officials to execute two engagement letters with quarrels and Brady LLP to serve as bond counsel for the city of Sheboygan Alderperson Donahue sorry there we go I move that we authorize appropriate city officials to execute two engagement letters with quarrels and Brady to serve as bond counsel for the city second Warren thank you for that motion in support is there any discussion on the motion see none will the clerk please call the roll ten eyes motion passes item 5.2 is RC number 5 of 2021 by the finance and personnel committee to whom is referred resolution number 5 of 2021 by Alderperson's Donahue and borne authorizing the issuance and establishment establishing parameters for the sale of not to exceed four million nine hundred eighty five thousand in general obligation promissory note series 2020 a Alderperson Donahue thank you mayor I would move to authorize the issuance and establishment of parameters for the sale of the bonds referred to is there a second second foreign and I apologize I meant promissory notes not bonds thank you we have a motion on the floor is there any discussion mayor I would also move to amend the resolution that's on the floor to provide that the resolution will incorporate the exhibits provided by the Wisconsin public finance professionals based on bids received today and to add the language shown in the red line prepared by quarrels and Brady reflecting the fact that the bids are within the parameters of the resolution is there a second foreign very good the amendments on the floor is there any discussion on the amendment seeing none all those in favor of the amendment please signify by saying aye aye opposed amendment passes and we're voting on the motion as amended is there any discussion on the motion as amended seeing no discussion with a clerk please call the roll for passage ten eyes motion passes item 5.3 is RC number 6 of 2021 by the finance and personnel committee to whom was reserved referred resolution number 6 of 2021 by all the persons not a human born authorizing the issuance and sale of three million one hundred thousand dollars in taxable water utility revenue bond anticipation note series 2020 be all the person down here thank you I so move second foreign thank you for that motion and support that motion is on the floor is there any further discussion mayor I would move to amend the resolution on the floor to provide rather to number 1 incorporate the exhibits provided by the Wisconsin public finance professionals based on the bids received today and 2 to revise the language is shown in the red line prepared by corals and Brady increasing clarity adding detail about the debt service reserve slightly modifying the covenants and appointing associated trust company as the registrar and paying agent for the notes is there a second foreign very good we have an amendment in a second is there any discussion on the amendment seeing none all those in favor of the amendment please signify by saying aye aye opposed amendment passes now we're going back to the general motion as amended is there any discussion on the motion hearing none whether clerk please call the roll for passage ten eyes motion passes under general ordinances item 6.1 and 6.2 we referred to the public works committee under other matters authorized by law I'll turn it over to city attorney Charles Adams by the city clerk submitting various license applications for the period ending June 30 2021 that'll be referred to the licensing hearings and public safety committee 7.2 is an RO by the city clerk submitting various applications for the period ending June 30 2021 and June 30 2022 that will also be referred to the licensing hearings and public safety committee next we'll be conducting an older person orientation we have a separate agenda for that to start out the first item will be how business is transacted commonly used documents the referral process types of actions in the council and common parliamentary procedures Meredith do you want to start out I think Chuck was going to read go through the commonly okay city attorney please proceed yes so in the attachments on more docs there is a copy of the common council handbook which is the rules or many of the rules for counsel at least the rules that are not contained in ordinance or in statute many of you are familiar with with a lot of these things so I'm going to be fairly brief and in my review but just as a reminder there are some documents that are official council documents that that we deal with ordinances which are the laws of the city resolutions through which the city generally or the common council generally conducts its general business ordinances and resolutions typically do require a vote of the common council it typically the item will come to the council for a first reading it will get referred to a committee and then it will come back ordinances are required to go through that process resolution there is a provision for having them just have a single reading there are also reports reports of committees are sees and reports of officers are owes these documents are reports or recommendations that have either been submitted by a committee or submitted in the case of an arrow submitted by a department head a board or a commissioner and they generally contain recommendations and reports on items and typically you are merely receiving those reports and perhaps adopting the recommendations in those and again those are things that you would vote on they are sees typically come directly out of the committee their result of committee actions are owes can either go to a committee and come out or they may in certain situations also come to council for a first reading get referred in and come back out communications are sort of exactly what they are their communications whether it's letters whether it's other documents that are received by the mayor by you or by the city clerk that end up being submitted to the council for consideration and placed on the agenda and not every communication that actually gets received by the mayor or by the clerk or even by you automatically gets put on the agenda in fact typically the process is those items are first directed to staff members oftentimes staff members can deal with those requests very quickly and there's not necessarily need for common council action on those things but sometimes the mayor will determine in consultation with the clerk to place certain items on on an agenda or it may come into a committee and the committee chair also in consultation with the clerk and the department head involved may make the decision to place that on an agenda communications typically though you know you're just receiving the communications and then filing those things they're more for your information it may cause you to decide to take some other action including having an ordinance or a resolution drafted but the communications themselves typically are not actionable items there are other items or other documents that often you will see often attached in in board docs those other documents are really for information only they're not they're not for action they're often very important information they often help you decide on how do you how to act on a resolution or or an ordinance that's coming through and so the fact that they are not an actionable document doesn't mean that they're not important but they are not documents that you're going to vote on most common of those documents is the IFC is an item for consideration I often tell people that that the alternative is that it also stands for information for committee because that's what it is it's information that's being provided to you in a standardized form so that you have the information that you need related to an item that is up for consideration it typically comes in at at the council level although you often see or at the committee level although you often see those items on the council agenda as well there are some rules about timing most of those rules really are more applicable to department heads and staff because they're the ones trying to get these items onto agendas for you but it's useful you have those rules as well that's hopefully useful for you as well and sort of planning out items that you may want to get onto a council agenda and the mayor does control the council agenda he's the one who decides what goes on the agenda and what doesn't there are some procedural rules if you disagree with the mayor's decisions on what gets put on an agenda and what does not although we have not had those kinds of issues really in in recent years so most common types of action then on these types of documents passage which is favorable action referral which would be sending the item to a committee or to a commission or to a board filing which just simply is what it is it's dispensing of the document or getting it out of committee if the committee is filing it or lying over and the reason why things sometimes lie over is there are requirements for certain types of matters to have two readings in front of the common council and so when something lies over it's often doing that so that you can have the first reading and then it lies over to another meeting for the second reading and final you do have the opportunity in in certain cases to spend the rules the rules typically do require a first and second reading although that first reading can sometimes occur at the committee level as on on occasion hopefully not that often although we had five or six of them today on occasion you will need to suspend the rules and suspending the rules most commonly happens when there's a need for quick action and basically there is a motion as it happens tonight to suspend the rules and then the mayor simply looks for an objection if there is an objection to suspending the rules there there would be a vote and you do have to have a supermajority in order to suspend the rules but in most cases we've typically instructed department heads and others who include in any documents where the rules are being suspended the base is for suspending rules so that you have that information when you look at the document I'm not going to go through every single piece of information here there is some interesting information for you on certain types of motions and whether they require a second and whether they're debatable and whether they're amendable and what kind of vote is required you can also ask me those questions when when they come up and I will answer them as quickly as I possibly can at the time there are a number of other common rules again I'm not going to go through all of them some of them were pretty good at following others you know I'm like the rule that all the person shall speak only twice on matters being debated or discussed during a common council meeting I don't know how much we've enforced that one in recent years but to some extent we haven't enforced it because it hasn't been a problem but it is a rule that's out there and and can be aware of that there are some also rules about who has the privilege of the floor some of you have been around a few years know that we did recently make some changes to that to give a few more people a privilege of the floor sort of automatically rather than a foreign vote by you starting at page eight we talked a little bit about commissions committees and boards and the rules there are fairly similar obviously committees are typically where a lot of the real discussion occurs where a lot of the work happens a lot more the details get sort of worked out there but and committees also tend to be a little bit more informal they don't have to be that that's really kind of depending on what's on the agenda and what the chair decides to do but in in general you know committees work in a similar fashion than just a smaller subgroup of the common council and then commissions and boards are appointed by the council or appointed by the mayor and approved by the council there and some things just to you know to remember there does need to be a quorum present quorum is a majority remote attendance is allowed in the same way that we allow them here at the common council we did update our our remote attendance rules to allow people to attend remotely and count towards the quorum which is why we can do what we're doing here today the most important thing I would say about about the issue with remote attendance is we do have a provision that says that while you can attend and vote remotely the one thing you have to be careful about is if you're voting on something that requires you to inspect a document or or to you know listen to some kind of testimony and and see the the documents there has to be provisioned for doing that otherwise you can't vote on it to some extent we allow you to make that determination for yourself and say yeah I was able to see it or I wasn't it was going to be interesting actually at the LHPS committee meeting on Wednesday we did have a hearing and had that hearing gone to to the end we would have had a little bit of work in front of us with a large number of documents basically getting them up to the screen and sharing them so that people could see while we're in those documents and that would have been interesting we were prepared and ready to go and as it turned out we didn't need to do that in that particular matter beyond that I think I've covered most of the items related to you there are some rules for the public starting at page 10 things like the the public forum and some of the basic rules for that and I can cover that if you have any kinds of questions on that but typically you know the public forum rules are they're set by you and and currently you allow that you know up to five people speak to speak for a limited amount of time there are rules as to who gets chosen it's first come first serve but with preference for city residents so a city resident who comes in after a non-city resident would would be able to bump that city resident if there were too many people on on the public forum that day okay can answer any questions that you might have about that about any of the items on in the common council handle I see no questions did you have anything okay then we'll move on to the the next item which is reviewing an agenda Mary Lynn did you want to start or Chuck did you want to continue go ahead I didn't have anything in particular on that I don't either it's pretty straightforward if you are a chair of a committee having input or carefully reviewing an agenda before the meeting is really helpful board docs is kind of revolutionized how we do business and so those concerns of past days of getting information and so forth are not they're just not an issue anymore the one thing I would note is just to see how the agenda item is configured sometimes it's for discussion only sometimes it is for discussion and action and that affects how we're going to deal with something but I'm a firm believer in actually looking at the agenda before the meeting reviewing each and every item is probably not necessary but for I mean you certainly can it's a good idea if you can but items that are bound to generate discussion you really should take a close look at that sorry and as Chuck pointed out the IFC which was Daryl's innovation when he first came is an extremely helpful document to figure out what's going on and then at the bottom what action is being requested and so again it takes the guesswork out of your role as a committee member or as a as a council member I think that's about all I would have Mike very good thank you then move on to general rules of conduct you know they're pretty simple that you know proper dress using the microphone properly we've all gotten used to the new technology here in the council chambers and I think everybody's getting used to operating at home and on these remote broadcasts and web webinars so it's good to see that then we can move on to open records and open meetings primer Chuck thank you so I did provide an outline on each of these items for you it's similar to an outline I've spoken before to the council on these issues and if you were around for those you've seen this before open records I'm going to talk about first of all and the purpose of the open records law is basically to ensure transparency in government in some places they're called government in the sunshine lot and it also to assist the public to be informed when they're making decisions on who to elect and how to vote on things I've listed there many of the legal requirements uh chapter or from yeah chapter 19.32 of the Wisconsin statutes what is a record who is an authority uh who is who is a requester some important things to note is first of all we we talk about who is the custodian of a record and here at the city typically we have said that you are a custodian of your records that you've received so if if someone is emailing you documents about an official city business you are the custodian of your records and you need to make sure that you're keeping those and if there is a request for them you will need to provide them now some typically requesters may not be coming directly to you for those requests they may be coming to a department head or to the city clerk or to my office making a request and in those cases we will be in touch with you if there are items that you're that we believe you're the custodian of or you're likely to have that you you may need to turn over to us. One of the big reasons that that's fairly important is we do encourage you and as you know to use city email that certainly makes makes things much easier for us to find things when when there are documents being sent we don't have to ask you to dig through your personal email or you know have to dig through your personal email if you're if you're consistently using your city email for city business. I'm not going to get into every single issue on open records there are a number of items that are exceptions there is an analysis that we use basically first of all we look is this a record that that is you know that does need to be turned over not everything is a record. Second once we we know that a request is for a record we determine is this a record that there's an exemption for in the public records law that says oh you you can't turn this over for some reason like patient health care records. Once we've eliminated that and now we know it's a record that's subject to be turned over most cases it is going to be turned over but we do have the opportunity to engage in what's called the balance where we balance sort of the the interest of the public in the openness of such a record with any policies that would weigh against revealing that record and so on occasions using the the balancing test we do deny sending out a particular document sometimes it's documents that are particularly sensitive for good policy reasons. So for example when we go into closed session we are going into closed session and I'll get a little bit into that in the next section on open meetings but we have very specific reasons why we're going into closed session. We'll use those policies you know and there's a document that we talked about in closed session we'll use that and then apply the balancing test using sort of those provisions of the open meetings law and in that case we might deny sending out a different document. So what happens if you disobey the open record well the the requester can file an action in circuit court and and get an order for you to release the records and if they are successful in that they can be awarded attorney's fees and costs and in cases where you are the actual keeper of the record where you are the custodian of the record that can be put personally against you which is again why we very much encourage you to use your city email to use city resources basically for city business because that makes things much more easy for you in taking care of those. Now there are a couple of scenarios on there about what is a record that's that subject to release and we use these also with with employees as well. Is it a record that needs to be released is an email to your spouse talking about dinner plans tonight and the answer to that is no it's not related to city business it's a personal email and that's not subject to open records. What about though an email using the email to your spouse stating how much you hate your job and how much you hate your department at? Well that might actually be something that would be releasable and having gone through open records and gone through email accounts it is sometimes a little surprising how sometimes people use their city email address so as for you just you know be careful how you use your your email address knowing that your city email is is likely open to for people to look at in many cases. Let's say a text to your fellow council person inviting the council member and his or her spouse for dinner next Friday well that's that's personal just like the email to your spouse talking about dinner plan tonight that's not going to have to be released but the fact that it's a text as opposed to an email doesn't necessarily make a difference because if you are using text messaging for official city business that may be a record and you will need to save those not records and that's something that you know with text that's very important to consider because texts are not as easily savable always as email. So a scenario where perhaps you're sending a text during a council meeting your fellow council person encouraging them to ignore the city attorney's advice about an upcoming agenda item that is potentially a record if somebody made a request for any documents you know between all they're talking about a particular issue that might end up having to be released. A Facebook status on your Facebook page stating your support of a candidate running for common council. If it's on your own page and it's really not about council business it's probably not a record that needs to be released obviously it's fairly public and people are going to be released but now let's say you use the city's Facebook page not to do that that certainly is a record it's also a policy violation for somebody to do that so that's something to be considered. Another set of questions let's say somebody you know member of the public walks up to you in the grocery store you're up at Pigley Wigley and they come to you six feet from you and start telling you about all the corruption in government and how they're going to prove it and then they verbally say and by the way I want you to provide all these particular documents so that I can prove all this corruption that's going on at city halls is this a request and the answer to that it is records requests are not required to be in writing they can be oral they can be verbal. There are some somewhat different rules as far as timing and things like that for oral requests but it is a request. Second is the person have a right to ask for these documents and absolutely they do they have every right to ask for documents unless they're about you know unless they're trying to prove there's some sort of corruption about you know patient records or something like that there may be some issues there but typically what they're saying is that I'm trying to get information about how city government runs certain things because I think there's corruption doesn't matter whether you agree with them or it doesn't matter whether they're nice about the request it doesn't matter if they're even particularly rational about the request they have a right to make that request and so then the question becomes do you have to provide the person copy and here we just get to the the issue of well who is the custodian of those records if they're asking for your individual email records you may be the custodian and you would likely have to provide those although the city can certainly help you with those and I would say anytime you receive a records request it's probably a good idea to let my office know and let the city clerk's office know so that we can assist you with that request in many cases though it may be that the request is for documents that for which you are not the custodian and what I would say in those situations as you can certainly say I'm sorry I don't have those records I'm not the custodian of those records but it is entirely appropriate then to direct them to who might be so if they're asking for you know for example documents related to finances of the city it might be marty if it's you know things having to do with economic development it might be chat or the fire department it might be monty or you may just want to direct them to my office and to the city court's office as well if you're not sure about who might be the custodian of the record we will we often do assist with a lot of those before I move on to open meetings are there any questions about open record I have a question I have a question mayor go ahead uh chuck uh when we leave office uh how long does the city keep our records and how long would our records be subject to an open uh you know our records request so it depends on what the record is so we actually have a records retention schedule it's a fairly in-depth record with a lot a document with lots of different deadlines for for various different things what I would say is that when you leave office it's probably a good thing to contact my office or the city clerk's office about how you're going to comply with those records in many cases you can turn those documents over to us and we're going to be able to help you with those things but you do have some requirements under the records retention schedule keep items for a period of time based on that schedule and and it really depends on what the document is what the record is as to what the time frame is but I can certainly help you with that um you know in 25 years when you decide not to run for calcium okay uh my but uh just be a little I'm a little more specific is uh all of my records are on the are on on my city account uh does the city routinely then keep those for a certain number of years just a blanket that they keep them or uh you know assuming that everything that I have is on my city account yes so we do and we and we follow the the records retention requirements of the records retention schedule so the IT department does keep those items so if you've got electronic records emails things like that that is all kept pursuant to the uh retention schedule I had one other question I don't know if this is the place that you want to cover this Chuck but just give us a reminder on walking forums and also sending out group emails to all of our fellow Alders when we should do that and when we shouldn't do that tell you what how about I cover that uh in the open meetings section because that's really what that is very good any other questions on open records before I go to open meetings please go ahead not hearing any I'm just going to move to open meetings so you also have an outline on open meetings and a lot of the purpose behind the open meetings laws is very similar to open records to allow public access to information government in the sunshine and and really um I think it's fair to say that the opens meetings law is designed to limit the use of closed sessions uh closed sessions are generally are supposed to be very much the exception and anytime we go into a closed session uh there needs to be very specific reasons for why we are going into closed session and there are rules that we have to follow uh in doing that what in talking about legal requirements what bodies are required to follow the open meetings laws and obviously the common council is and the committees are but really uh all sorts of uh governing bodies for special purpose units of government uh study and advisory committees commissions and boards uh any subunits that have been created so uh you know years ago we had uh um we had created a subcommittee to look at the vicious dog and dangerous dog requirements and that you know all those discussions had to be in open and follow all the uh open meetings laws as well and quasi-governmental corporations as well any any sort of uh uh corporation that's been set up uh by whether it's by municipalities such as the rda um or any any uh corporation that sort of acts in a quasi-governmental way a lot of times um economic development uh corporations have been required to uh uh be uh to follow open meetings laws as well because they're seen as as taking on quasi-governmental um roles as some of the things to consider there's a numbers test and there's a purpose test so uh if a half or more of the members are present uh there is a presumption that there is a meeting um now that's a presumption that can be rebutted and so you know for example let's say six of you um show up for the fourth of july fireworks on labor day and you happen to all sit near each other is that a public meeting well no um it not necessarily and if all you're talking about is how great the fireworks are and and and and how uh the sponsor has outdone themselves this year you know that's fine but now let's say you start getting into city business and you know as part of this you start you know saying hey you know um Chad the economic development coordinator was part of this maybe we ought to give him a raise for doing such a good job with with uh with doing this well suddenly now you're getting into city business and um and you do need to be very careful of that and potentially you have met now the numbers test and the purpose test you're dealing with city business a walking quorum alderman boran mentioned that uh you can't get around the the public meetings law by just simply going from alderman to alderman to alderman to alderman if if you sort of do this chain where everybody talks to each other about what they're going to do and you have now created this walking quorum where in essence you've tried to walk around the quorum rules and and that is impermissible as well and so email chains phone conferences can very much uh be in violation of the numbers test so you have an email uh that goes to all if if you know if six or more of the alders are on it there is a presumption that is a meeting now it also has to meet the purpose test so for example let's say uh alderman x sends out an email to the rest of the alderman and says hey i think we should vote this way on this item uh that's clearly problematic and that that uh is potentially a meeting and i think any alderman that receives an email like that should you know not respond in in any way uh and probably let somebody know whether it's to the administrator or my office or the clerk's office bill uh that that we've got this issue but there are some exceptions uh to that purpose test so for example uh let's say you're you just are trying to set up a meeting date that is actually an exception under the purpose test if you were just trying to figure out when we can meet that is that is permissible or you know you're talking about something that's not really city business uh hey let's let's all get together you know um let's let's all get together for uh pizza and alderman wolf's backyard or you know things like that those are also uh those are gonna be permissible because even they they don't pass the numbers test they pass the purpose test uh the purpose isn't uh that you know doing city business so when we look at it i i have on on page one and page two i have some some some of the uh language regarding what's what is the purpose test with purpose for the gathering i think in general you can use some common sense in in thinking about that um and and you know if you have questions about a particular issue you can you can always call my office as well there are some notice requirements for meetings uh and if you don't follow those notice requirements that then you potentially have an open meeting violation uh some of those relate to timing as to how how much beforehand we have to post uh the meeting of the agenda and what's on the agenda that that also there are there are requirements as to what we're we have to be rather specific about what is on the agenda we can't just have say an agenda that says we're gonna have a meeting on such and such a date to conduct the business of the city that would be inappropriate you have to be much more specific about what you're talking about and we do have posting rules uh we do post these uh in certain physical locations as well as sending them out uh and and there are a number and publishing them as well and and there are rules that the clerk's office is very aware of uh that they follow on on those things closed sessions then uh i've listed there uh a number of those uh reasons section 19.8 of the statutes list the various reasons that we can go into closed session and and you know anyone any one of you who's ever been chairman of a committee or uh or president of council knows that you kind of do that tongue twister where you're reading all the reasons why that you have to go in closed session we have to do that that is that is one of the requirements and you have to very specifically indicate what is the purpose for going into closed session because you know that is also a part of the open meeting you need to let the public know what it what is it that you're talking about in closed session and why is it that it is a closed session that that you're not entitled to be a part of that so i've listed there those reasons from the statute typically you will always convene a meeting in open session you'll announce the purpose for the closed session and the statutory reason and then you'll have a majority you have to have a majority vote via a roll call vote to go into closed session in closed session you're limited to only the items that have been announced on the agenda for the closed session and then you only reconvene in open session if it's included in the public notice and you're going to reconvene in open session you don't have that you can't come back uh into open session and start acting on things you have to have that in the agenda that you're going to be coming back in general votes on items uh are must be done in open session the exception to that is where vote the vote would compromise the need for a closed session so usually as as you know we'll have a closed session and we will conduct a vote in closed session uh to basically get the sense of let's say we went into closed session to confer with legal counsel for the city on how to proceed on a on a legal matter uh you know that we're negotiating let's say well you might vote to say oh you know items you should offer up to this amount or up to this amount well you don't want that to be in an open session that vote so that that kind of a vote is permissible in closed session we do have to preserve the record of the closed session so the clerk's office does take minutes of closed sessions as well but of course those aren't going out on for ducks because they are closed sessions but it is important to note that when the reason for the closed session has you know gone away uh people may be able to get those records of what happened in closed session after the fact so let's say you're you're meeting in closed session to talk about you know how how I should settle this particular lawsuit um once that lawsuit is settled and and the case is done somebody could request that record and find out what was it that uh that you actually authorized me to do and you know did did um did did we get a good deal you know you authorized me to pay you know ten million dollars and I was able to negotiate down and eight million dollars or something like that that is able to be found out penalties a court can void decisions that are made at illegal meetings um and if they decide that the public interest in enforcing the open meeting law outweighs the public interest in sustaining that decision there are fines for pictures that can be um levied against you and and again you have personal liability so what I would suggest is this if you believe that uh there is a violation of open meetings law taking place let's say you're in a closed session and and you feel like things have just gone so far uh and we're not talking about items that were uh on the closed session anymore and and that that lawyer isn't reigning people in like like like he should be um you may want to just step out and not participate any further uh to avoid um you know the potential personal liability in that circumstance that that's that would be uh not only perfectly fine but it's probably the the the best thing that you could do uh among the penalties also is potentially the payment of attorney's fees uh to someone who is impacted by this so I also listed a few scenarios there on open meetings you're at the Fourth of July festivities on Labor Day down at the lakefront you see a few members of the committee that you chair for the five members gather and talk about their children and the weather is that a violation oh no your children uh and the weather you know they're that's not city business unless your child happens to be like a department head that you're trying to fire or something um but that that would typically not be a violation but now one of the four people starts to talk about some of the items on the next agenda that a violation yeah that's that's potentially a violation the four of you shouldn't be talking about because you've got a majority of a committee there uh you shouldn't be talking about items that are on on that agenda now let's say two of the five members uh walk over to some picnic tables out of earshot and they start to talk about this is that a violation and the answer that is no that would not necessarily be a violation you're now down to two people and typically you would not be in violation now there is one thing to consider which is a reverse quorum and there are certain items where a supermajority vote is required and because two people on a committee couldn't potentially although at committee we don't have there are very few committees that have supermajority requirement but you know let's let's just say it's one of those things it's uh two members of the um of the parks board decides to talk about whether to um you know to let a park become not a park anymore because that does take a supermajority and because two people could prevent the vote on that there you could have a violation because of the reverse quorum rules or let's say something that requires a two-thirds vote at council and you have four members of the council talking about that item even though you're less than five that's that's potentially a violation so you should you should also be aware of what are those items that do take a supermajority another question is an email chain includes the entire council and members are discussing substantive items about a meeting and if it is about substantive items yeah that that that could be but if you're for example only discussion setting a date for the next meeting you know that's that's perfectly okay that is allowed that is not a violation finally you know your committee meets fairly regularly and and a lot of times people who are coming and be in front of the committee um you know regularly request to go into closed session because they're embarrassed about the content of the discussion uh and but the content of the discussion is readily available to the public through other means should your committee consider going into closed session well you know typically in those situations if it's readily available anyway um there's probably a reason for that which is it's not considered a reason to go into closed session under the rules in 1985 now if there is a basis to go into closed session you can do that there are even provisions for going into closed session without uh it being on the agenda although you need to be very careful about that and once you go into closed session for an item uh on an agenda that did not have a closed session item uh you're not going to be able to come back into open session because of that rule that I talked about before where it always has to be on the agenda of a motion to come back into open session if you're going to come back into open session so that's something to be very careful about it rarely happens but there can be circumstances in which suddenly something comes up that requires a closed session and you you could finish the meeting in closed session at that time are there any questions or comments about any of the items there Chuck I'd like to ask you one question you talked briefly about committees seeing that if you talk to another person on your committee and it's just the two of you that would be okay except for the negative reverse quorum but if if you talk to three members of that committee then that would would be a problem because that's now then that would be the majority of the committee but what if you were on say the public works committee and you're interested in something in finance and you talked to three members of the finance committee lobbying them is that a walking quorum because you're not on the committee what I would say is that is not in and of itself a walking quorum because you're not on the committee however the problem that you have is if you now are sort of acting as the stocking horse you know you know you're sort of being the person to make sure that that all three people are now going to vote the same way on the committee that that is potentially a problem so what I would say is you need to be very careful about that the other issue that you would have in that circumstance is now you've got one who's not on the committee but they are on the council and that person being on the common council is likely to have to vote on the item coming out of the committee and so you also have to think that second step ahead and now are you running into potential violations there for an item that may come out of committee and now you are going to vote for a vote on it and now you have four people and depending on what the item is that you could have a reverse quorum there thank you any other questions seeing none then we'll move on to constituent interactions I just like to start out a little bit with that one and saying that when you encounter somebody in the public and you know maybe it's not convenient I always carry some of my business cards around and all of you have those now too and I'll just give them to that person say look this isn't the right time to talk about this I really want to pay some attention and understand your issue please shoot me an email or give me a call during business hours or at a certain time and try to delay that but sometimes that's a better way to to work through that and then when you get an email or a call from somebody always try to get back to them right away that day if you can and at least let them know you receive their communication and give them an idea of the time you're going to need maybe to get an answer if you can't give them that answer right away and then the other thing that I think many of us do is you know we go back to our department heads ask them about it and they're usually pretty good at giving you the explanation but if you don't feel you can relate that that well ask that department head to me or that employee other employee to to maybe call that person back they've been very good about handling some of those things as well so just a few hints that that I've had Todd or Mary Lynn anything you'd like to add if I could just follow up I think that you know we talked about this last year when we had some new folks but one of the most satisfying and sometimes challenging activity is as an alder is problem solving and this is essentially what constituent service is how do you solve the problem and I found early on in my tenure as an alder that department heads and staff in the city are almost uniformly extremely helpful and that is the place you know for you to start and people are grateful you rarely get a thank you like gee thanks for solving my issue but when you know that you've solved it it it is gratifying so and just following up on what Mike said the worst thing you can do is not answer I know a lot of us are getting group emails addressed to everybody and sometimes there are issues that really can't be solved as an alder but if you think that you want to be the person to try to figure out what's going on it doesn't hurt to say I've got this one or I'll cover it and we'll all be grateful for that and it's it's a it's a good way to approach those those kind of group email issues so but it's just important to get back anyone else okay then we'll move on into city operations the next item is fiscal impacts due to the COVID-19 on city revenue and expenditure impacts of the CARES Act and supplemental allocations to Sheboygan Darrell you're going to take that one thank you Mr. Mayor including your packet is a spreadsheet in contacting and working with management team members to identify material or significant changes that are anticipated during this fiscal year these are the responses I received please note that when farm heads initially responded back they asked are you looking for worst-case scenario are you looking for just year-to-date impacts and in almost every case my response was please assume sort of a moderate situation that by the end of May beginning of June things are starting to come back as far as activity level but maybe not fully up to strength throughout the course of the summer months so again this is more of a moderate attempt to identify changes in revenue as well as expenditures I'm going to quickly go through sort of some of the categories again if they're a number without bracket that typically means additional that's a fiscal positive if there's a bracket whether it's in the revenue column or an expense column that's it's in essence a negative so in the police department or police operations there is an additional funding source that we've received for a little over 47 000 but then again the bracket there are some decreases associated with revenue whether it be parking violations court penalty fines or just general donations or contributions parks and forestry as many of you know park shelter rentals we actually refunded all those through the end of May correspondingly there is going to be a drop in seasonal staff so that is netting out to no cost garbage Mr. Beeble has identified that with with folks being home whether that means they're getting a lot more car boxes shipped to them or they're eating out less the tonnage is up and so there is a tipping fee additional tipping fee associated with that so this is approximately three months of additional tipping fees miscellaneous revenue Marty Haverson identified roughly 51 52 000 and lower interest income and then with the police department and the number of stops or tickets issued the estimate from our municipal court judge is that we will see again under a moderate situation roughly 50 000 drop again it's revenue in the municipal court but ultimately it comes into the general fund other under a category called other financing sources in the area of elections from the city clerk received information about additional costs associated with the spring election off supplies postage and then and printing other miscellaneous licensing and just general revenue again we will see a decrease as example bartenders the number of licenses we're seeing a decrease during this time because a lot of these establishments are not open I've attempted again to kind of categorize these are all items in the general fund I put sort of a collective number together of 167 929 debt service fund as many of you know a major revenue source our funding source in our debt service fund is monies that are being paid through room tax in light of and we heard a little bit about it earlier as part of the council agenda some of the hotels are closed overnight lodging overall is down so again under a moderate scenario almost a quarter of a million dollar drop and again we keep of the 8 percent room tax we keep 30 percent 70 percent goes to visit sheboygan so their impact is even greater transit utility fund dear mink has identified a significant grant as part of the care the federal cares act of almost 3.5 million we're able to use that to offset any reduction in fares as you know during the current situation we are no longer asking anyone writing the bus or asking for the bus come to their house if it's paratransit no charges people are not purchasing passes a monthly passes also advertisement on the side of buses that is down capital expense as part of the stimulus package at the federal level their goal is to get money spent into the economy so Derek has been looking at opportunities or options as far as how to spend that grant money as some of you are part of the cap improvement commission you've heard that we are there is a recommendation that we move purchases in 2022 23 and 24 move them up into 2021 fiscal year in the form of buses additional vans and building renovations again the expectation the federal government is that substantial amount of this these funds are put into the economy and spent so far we have roughly 767 000 of unidentified uses of those funds again we're unclear at we're still receiving information from state federal government federal government as to how all these funds can be used as a result of at this point we have not identified 100 use of that cares act funding on the back of the second page again is another cares act funding source 539 000 almost 540 000 with the 420 000 of the grant program that was created two weeks ago plus public service allocation increase and then administering these programs 100% of these funds are expected to be spent library funds meet public library again decrease not significant but a decrease capital projects fund discussing with my counterpart at shewing county they do expect a drop in sales tax as you're aware there's a portion of that sales tax that is allocated to local governments to be used solely for the purposes of funding street or transportation related projects I think a 20% reduction in what we were originally allocated comes out to be 82 200 dollars last is a wastewater utility fund overall flowage or volume has decreased there is of course a fixed portion to every bill including residential but overall volume including manufacturing related as an example nemack is our number one customer in the community by far when you go by some of their locations there's a limited number of cars in the parking lot so their volume is is down one thing that I didn't put on here is a parking utility good news is we did not have a a year late winter early spring with a lot of snow so they're seeing a decrease in some of the expenses Derek mink has temporarily put on hold some parking lot improvement and maintenance projects we are seeing a decrease in parking meter usage as well as monthly parking passes or permits so that's something that was left off inadvertently but I wanted to share it with you nevertheless any any comments again we have rough over a hundred million dollars worth of activity in our our city overall this list I'm pleased that it's really only a page and a half as far as a moderate you know moderately being impacted by the pandemic in the general fund itself of course we have a contingency for unique situations this is clearly one of those occasions and I'm pleased that we do have such a high fund balance in that account I know that when I meet with the management team on a weekly basis we do talk about whether there's opportunities for decreases in expenses and so that's something that staff will continue to discuss probably over the whole course of this calendar year any questions I have a question Alderman Jim Boren yes Darrell in your in your initial budget discussion for 2021 a couple things if you're not taking a look at one thing I would like you to take a look at and now that we have a new going to have a new HR HR director is also looking at more of a cafeteria plan for city employees as far as their health insurance just to give you an example maybe some of our younger employees would rather have a $5,000 deductible and be able to lower their monthly premium just as an example of coming up with something for more of our employees where it would be a win-win for the city and the employee the win for the city would possibly being you know our share of the premium wouldn't be as great and also for the employee if they were willing to accept a higher deductible for people in an age group that that might might make sense for also in your initial discussions I know the last three or four or five years we've we've had a 2% increase in wages for our city employees in your initial discussions is that the intent for 2021 or haven't you really discussed that yet great great questions comments appreciated I'll start on the latter comment first as far as potential wage increases for 2021 as you're aware four three out of our four contracts have been signed for calendar year let me back up two two police have been signed there's pending approval by the trans amalgamated transit union for a three-year con I think a three-year contract starting this 2020 all those three contracts are all 2% or more the existing fire department contract which we will commence negotiations this summer with an effective date of 1 1 2021 that's in essence open for consideration prior to the pandemic I was anticipating in light of the two signed contracts with the police officers unions that a minimum that 2% in essence would probably be the percentage when as part of our budgetary process there is a presentation at the finance and personnel committee of anticipated parameters or new information new costs or additional revenue and that typically is presented the latter part of May beginning of June I have been asked by members of the finance personnel committee to possibly move that up as soon as possible so as early earlier today discussion I had discussions with our new HR director and labor relations director about a pops coming up with the costs associated with a couple different scenarios so we will present some options and give you a sense as far as the total fiscal impact of 2% versus some of some other options regarding health insurance as you're aware during your tenure as an older person older born the city went from a traditional health insurance plan to a high deductible plan for the very reasons that you just stated what we found is not only from internal input but also from sort of industry wide a lot of companies are going back to the traditional lower deductible health insurance plan again as part of a employee retention effort employees and again depending whether they're sort of higher paid employees versus lower paid sometimes it's very difficult especially for families to pay for that higher deductible health insurance plan so we're actually looking at the opposite we're actually looking at coming up with a second option but going back to a traditional lower deductible lower being 750 single 1500 family again as an option again I hope to show two members of the finance and personnel committee that this new option won't necessarily mean more expense for the city as a whole but ultimately based upon the needs financial needs of the of a family as an example of one of our employees it may be a preferred route to go and that they in essence pre-plan and they can guarantee what their maximum out of pocket will be as opposed to the high deductible it often is a little bit of a guesswork as far as what the impact may be in any given year on them and their their family's budget I hope those my comments answered your questions yeah that was very helpful thank you any other questions well thank you dear next we'll call on Marty Halverson for a debt management policy session thank you mayor and older persons hopefully what I can go through with you you gain a little bit of insight into it just as much as I have I know I'm learning this as well while I have our IT director putting a document up I'll take this moment just to thank Meredith as it is professional municipal clerks week this week so she does an excellent job and is always multitasking and doing everything behind the scenes as the mayor said I'm going to be talking about a debt management policy and you would have earlier in your packet gotten a attachment of a word document of a debt management policy that the city currently has one of the things that myself as well as two other individuals with the city did go earlier to Sivmic and when we were down at Sivmic for our insurance it was a policy update and what I'm doing is as you'll see on the screen I'm taking the current documents and placing them or trying to put them into a new consistent layout and format so that's that's one of the tasks that I've taken on as a finance goal of getting this not only to review and readdress all of our policies but we're going to try to put them into a consistent layout so that they're easier to read easier to follow and hopefully informative in when they're updated revised and so forth right now the one on the screen I just have up there is just a revision date just purely just so that I had some information in there there's no necessarily a date on when we will have it officially revised but I want to bring multiple at a time so just going through then the debt management policy certainly you can feel free to follow along on your own version if you're wanting I'm going to touch on some of the the key aspects of that and then I also have a PowerPoint to go through some other items as to showing you a kind of a current where we are in relation to the city debt primary objectives of our debt management policy is to establish the appropriate use of debt find alternative methods to pay for debt service other than property tax minimize the city's debt service and issuance costs kind of leveling it out that's one of the main things that Darrell and I have been working with Carol worth from Wisconsin finance professionals with retaining the highest practical credit rating that sometimes can be within our control in some aspects and other aspects not always you've got Sheboygan's average income is one of the areas where we tend to be downgraded on there's there's things such as the economic trends and or property values that can certainly affect that the types of industries and what we do have a factor on our credit rating provide complete financial reporting and disclosure and maintain level and affordable annual debt service payments policy guidelines one of the meetings that we had right before the finance meeting this evening was our capital improvements program that's a program where it's a five-year capital improvements program really what it is is a one year budget and a five-year long-term capital plan a lot of the components of that is to make sure that we are using our debt to provide for capital asset purchases and then maintaining some adequate annual principal and interest requirements another policy guideline would be uses of debt and other forms of borrowing so like i said it's acquisition it can also be maintenance replacement or expansion of capital assets and infrastructure but the city will not issue long-term debt to fund current operations debt capacities certainly using the debt capacity will be used only after other financing options have been reviewed and then the length of debt and timing of bond issues one of the things that we've been discussing over the last couple years is whether we've got notes and bonds and we have some of some of both and i'll i'll show you later on where we currently are at with the total dollar value but generally the city issues promissory notes with a tenure amortization for capital improvement projects call features can sometimes be included in those bonds and one of the things that we did do last year was we did call some of our financing for various reasons whether it be to put take advantage of lower interest rates and or to level out some of our debt service capitalize interest the city will generally not capitalize interest on its general fixed assets and infrastructure assets there's also conduit financing and that's debt issued by the city of shiboy into finance a project of a non-city third party so the city may sponsor conduit financing that generally have a public purpose but are not consistent and are consistent with the city's overall goals credit rating as i mentioned earlier the various factors that go into it and what carol worth had alluded to earlier this evening was we did maintain a double a2 rating one of the things that we had last year and i haven't had a chance to study the scorecard fully yet this year we can fall into different quadrants and or boundaries on our credit rating we actually are last year we were fairly close to and actually i think our score put us below a double a2 but moody's does have the right to upgrade you and they they did put us into a double a2 as i studied some of the the metrics and the scorecard a little bit further this year i'll be able to understand how close really are we to that borderline but you know that the challenge is trying to figure out the gray area that moody's has at their discretion on on how to how to score you and and give your official rating financial disclosure is another general policy guideline so is the debt limits which the city will maintain outstanding debt in the amount not exceeding 60 percent of the city's aggregate statutory borrowing limit prescribed prescribed by state statute 67.03 subsection 1a and then there's also independence method and award of sale as a policy guideline refunding practices as i said you know we did do some refunding last year and we're gonna plan to potentially take advantage of refunding this year and again that could be for for lower interest rates and then there's also arbitrage as a policy guideline so with that what i will do is have meredith hopefully call up the powerpoint give that a second to load and what i'm going to go through in the powerpoint this evening is just kind of some current position of of where we are in the city within our debt and kind of relate it to what the policy had so if you want to go to the first slide so currently our 12 31 2019 debt detail we did have on record our geo bonded debt and geo long-term notes again those notes are the shorter term than the the bonds and then we also have it split into different categories of geo debt and and tiff or tid debt and there's the totals and right now we're structured at about a 60 bond 40 percent long-term notes that might be something that we look to whether you know how we have that balanced or if we have parameters put into the policy i mean we we certainly don't want to restrict ourselves in any way shape or form but it might be something that will will take into account on how clear how much clarity we need in the policy next slide and then we have another slide that shows all of our geo debt and tiff debt annual principal principal and interest maturities so individually each over the next five years you can see what our principal and interest and total are for all of our debt payments i do note down at the bottom though the these do exclude our tid nan which is 10.49 million dollars related to tid 18 and it also excludes our sewer utility clean water fund loan which is at 8.8 million dollars but then there's also the it shows how far out our debt is currently structured and that's out to 2038 and our grand total then of of principal and interest of the just under 60 million dollars slide next we have our debt service levy trends over the last four years we've got our debt service levy trending upward certainly we've done a fair amount of expansion and development in the city and certainly replacing some equipment i know we saw in our capital improvements we've got capital equipment as well that certainly we're looking to find a way to to balance not only our our debt service levy trend but our annual service payments and still be able to provide all of the necessary infrastructure and assets that are needed for the city next slide our legal debt margin calculation based on 1231 2019 this is a document that you'll also always find in our our budget book so it gives it starts out with the equalized value property values of the city and the statutory limit percentage to give you a general obligation debt limit and then our total outstanding geo less amounts available for financing gives you a net outstanding geo debt applicable and at this point we are at 26.35 percent of our legal debt used that was as of 1231 19 and then the last slide that i have tonight is the net debt ratio which shows our direct debt which is the total debt that 49 million dollars that i had at the beginning divided by the equalized value and 1.68142 is a fairly reasonable and healthy value looties you know at times looks at three to four percent being on average so i i think we're in actually pretty good shape in that respect so certainly i didn't get too deep into the weeds on the debt management policy but i guess if there are any questions i certainly can entertain them now any questions for marty thanks for your presentation marty next move on to personnel policies for elected officials our hr director vicki schneider thank you mayor it's my understanding that you have each received at some point a handbook for uh employee policies and um i'll be honest it is uh from 2016 and so it is in do need for a review but it does serve to provide us with guidelines that are consistent and fair and decision making and as it stands i just want to go and touch a few of the points that are noted in the handbook there is a concealed carry notation in the handbook so that no employee is to enter any city facilities with a weapon unless they are um duly sworn to be able to do so uh safety is a primary experience for all of us we want to protect the the integrity and safety of all our employees and those who are guests and visitors in our in our buildings um again we have a zero tolerance for workplace violence so if there's any threat or any kind of intimidation in that in that sense that that would not be tolerated and could lead up into dismissal um also there is a note on alcohol and controlled substances again a zero tolerance for for any employee being under the influence while in uh while serving their responsibilities one one policy that i would like to particularly make note of is our harassment policy um that has been created earlier this year and we are will be doing trainings on this as as this year unfolds um as we can do that for all employees the the purpose of this policy is to maintain a healthy work environment in which all individuals are treated with respect and dignity um and to provide a process so they can report or investigate and resolve complaints of harassment um harassment can fall into several several areas in particular the policy calls out sexual harassment which is defined as unwelcome sexual advances requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature uh when these are explicitly or implicitly a term of condition of employment are used as the basis for employment decisions or um with the purpose of creating an intimidating hostile or offensive working environment again harassment of any sort is not tolerated whether that's in verbal written visual or physical acts that creates an intimidating or offensive work environment or interferes with someone's ability to perform their job um the second part of a harassment policy is also retaliation for when someone may come forward with a complaint we also want to be sure that we're an agency or an organization that protects those who come forward with some sort of complaint whether it's for co-worker supervisors or elected officials um no one can be retaliated which could be look for uh discharge of demotion or reduction in pay or reassignment of job duties um and and there is a several items in this list of what could be uh construed as retaliation uh this policy is for all covered individuals which again as um employee employees volunteers members of the public and elected officials let's see i wanted to make sure that um that as elected officials and as all employees that you are aware that if someone comes to you with a complaint it is your responsibility to bring that complaint forward to the appropriate persons whether that is someone again on the on the council or a department head or to the city administrator or the city attorney we do have a process for for handling uh complaints that could come forward we ask that employees uh council members use the chain of command so that you are going to the person uh directly responsible for the incident if that is uh if that is comfortable it if it is not comfortable there are avenues to go outside of the organization which would either be through the state of wisconsin equal rights division or the eeoc and there are phone numbers provided in this policy as well so that people can do that um and the policy includes definitions of what uh harassment again what nonverbal harassment could look like other forms of harassment and physical or and again discrimination and retaliation um the purpose is to provide a safe working environment for all and so that all feels safe as they can perform their duties so um that's all i have if anyone has questions any questions okay thank you very much vicki next move on to the 2017 20 21 strategic plan action items darrell i have too much paperwork the city strategic plan as you know is a five-year document and is part of the original review by us council by you as a body common council body we identified the first two years 2000 i think it was 17 and 18 uh for uh with specific action items as well as critical measures to in order to measure success uh so after that first prior to the end of that first two years uh the common council also created 2000 and 19 2020 action items and associated critical measures as we uh come closer to uh that fifth year 2021 uh city staff is beginning to work on those action items and critical measures uh so in your packet are a draft uh there's i expect there to be further refinements please note that substantially they're similar to the first four years uh there are sprinkled throughout this latest document 2021 action items several items that are included in the five-year cip for 2021 um but again this is this is something that both management team and us council members if there's items uh whether it's a policy uh procedures uh capital items um you know please bring those forward for for discussion these will go through a committee process similar to the ultimate review of a strategic plan and then ultimately back to you as as a council so over the course of the next month you'll see this another time or two but again i wanted to give you an opportunity to see what this document looked like and again uh reiterate uh we welcome your input uh so please forward to them to either myself or to claudia stanskas uh and we will place them on for your further review and and consideration any questions for daryl okay thank you next we'll go on to the 2022 mic i'm sorry go ahead barb how much is covet 19 going to impact the strategic plan the next couple of years again with this being 2021 is the focus of my recent comments um probably too soon to tell um based upon uh how hard it hits uh the us as well as you know possible medical breakthroughs as far as vaccines i think we've all heard the possibly that there may be a second wave uh that may hit in the fall and maybe continue into the next year so uh at at this point um i haven't uh overwhelmed this document uh at this point in time with covet 19 related uh action items or critical measures but that's something i guess we could discuss further any other questions okay next we'll move on to the 2022 2026 strategic plan engagement and council survey chad pelichak yeah as chat passes out uh two documents one is a summary of the survey uh that you as well as the management team participated in over the last couple business days but also i want to extend my appreciation to chat and answer marrying for their work on developing a strategic plan engagement uh as as i just mentioned our current strategic plan runs through 2021 so we're in the process of identifying ways in which we want to entertain input comments by the public as well as elected officials and management team as well as individual employees and again i think they've done a great job of providing a lot of detail as to how we're going to gain input so the first document we're going to discuss is that one that's titled strategic plan engagement those of you that are on the phone i think this was included in your packet those of you that are here i just handed out copies of um and i would like to draw your attention to the first the chart that's on the top of the um the top to kind of outline where we're going so stage one is to review the focus areas and the goals and then i'll talk shortly about the results of the survey that uh number of you took last week um but that's beginning now in may of 2020 we're looking to gather in community input and employee feedback in the June to July timeframe and then we're going to complete an environmental scan document and that talks a little bit more in detail on the second page of this handout as to what an environmental scan is it's primarily a review of the census bureau data and trends as it relates to population and demographics um so that will be completed between the May and August timeframe actually it's being worked on as we speak uh stage two the priorities and action steps we're going to conduct a community employee uh survey in the fall sometime around September of 2020 two community workshops in October of 2020 and then a management team in a common council strategic plan workshop similar to what we did in the last plan sometime in November beginning in December of 2020 we the management team in the common council review a draft of the plan with the goal of getting the plan to the council for approval in February of 2021 in time for the start of the Kaplan improvements process and the 2022 budget process so we've looked at ways of engaging with the public particularly as it relates to virtually um and trying to minimize the impact of having people still doing this planning process but not having large groups meet for workshops so we're looking at a number of opportunities there's a number of tools out there online social pinpoint um and then another one called bang the table which is um programs that allow you to do social interaction virtually um so we'll be looking at how we can utilize some of those to minimize uh direct impact of public hearings and workshops the other thing we've done is we've applied for a AARP grant um in the past AARP grant has fund bicycle repair stations um in different projects we've put in for a community engagement van where it would be a a van that could go into neighborhoods and um different public events and try to get people to engage with the city on our our strategic plan focus areas so should we get that funding we've got a van lined up at the county that they're selling for a reasonable price and we'll give it some goofy wild graphics and send it out into the neighborhoods and start encouraging people to communicate more with us through this tool so the rest of the report that is before you talks in more detail what each one of those steps are i'm not going to get into detail on it but our goal is to really kick this thing off uh full step and and get to this final approval sometime in the first uh couple months of the new year 2021 the second document i'd like to review is the second one i handed out and those of you that are on the phone i just emailed this document out to all of you as well as the department heads prior to the start of this but uh this is the results of the survey that the number of you took last week so um we had the survey was open for five days and administered via survey monkey monkey um common council management team members were invited to respond we had 18 total responses um the common council responses equated to seven and the management team responses equated to 11 16 respondents provided feedback on priorities for the next strategic plan nine respondents would like to be interviewed uh to provide further insight um and a full summary of the information gathered during the survey and the interview will be available after interviews have been completed so in the chart you can see that um 100 percent all of the 18 responses agreed to the current strategic plan focus areas are being clearly defined defined and well organized 16 percent of you have additional priorities and goals that you would like to include in this next planning process so some of the priorities and goals respondents identified as missing include support and foster owner occupied housing and neighborhoods purposeful strategic items to address diversity in the city need to update the focus areas as needed to continue to change and then include internal service departments when identifying priorities and goals on the second page in the back of the document the focus areas for the next strategic plan almost 44.4 percent um felt that they should be kept 33 percent said they should be changed and then 22 percent changed in some other ways so the ways that changes that they're looking for are um to Alderman Feldy's comment addressing the economic recovery after COVID-19 include diversity and inclusion operational improvement long-range goals setting and then strategic planning process to be more public engagement so we're hoping to address some of that there's a long list of priority projects you all that took the survey we're asked to rank your top three so you can see the results of those and we will include those in the update and the further processes we go through through this so that's it in a nutshell if there's any specific questions I'd be happy to answer them any questions for Chad mr. Mayor may I go out of order and just jump into my next item that'll be fine okay um I hand it out to the ones that are here in the chambers as well as those that are on the phone you should have received them in your doorstep today but it's a folder a blue folder that has a number of neighborhood resources for those of you that participated in um last september's event at king park where we invited all the neighborhood association leaders in this document was given out to them um this is and we heard from a number of you during that time that we should share this during the old dramatic training so this is a document that talks about um contact information for the departments the neighborhood association contact list is updated for all of the neighborhoods that current all the people that currently represent their neighborhoods um and their contact information there's a number of city speaking events so if you're involved with any neighborhood associations and they would like to bring in a speaker there's an opportunity to do so at that listing there's some documents on how to find your neighborhood officer request services from the city there's some marketing material on next door and how to get involved with that and then a number of programs that are done in support with the department of public works the adoptive park the neighborhood large item disposal program so that stuff is kind of outlined here with flyers as it relates to that um some of the neighborhoods have taken advantage of what we like to say the hot dog request so we provide hot dogs for neighborhood events so that they can use them to draw people in uh to different events and then there's some additional planning documents that we've been working with on our neighborhood's plan on a page to try to get the neighborhoods on board with a planning um kind of laying out where they want to go and then a mini grant program that we've had in the past the other document that's in this for your review and and thought is a map that shows the all of the neighborhood all of the city 72 neighborhoods in the city overlaid with your represented districts for all dramatic districts so you can see which ones make up your area uh in in uh reference to the neighborhoods for that area so you have that at your uh fingertips so if there's any questions on this information I'd be happy to answer it but there's a lot of resources in there for uh neighborhoods and for you as alderman thank you Chad any questions appreciate your report next we'll go on to a constituent claims attorney Adams contact from uh some of your constituents about it and so just to make sure that you understand what the process is claims do need to be filed in writing with the uh city clerk's office and they do have a claim form that we recommend using they're not required to use that particular form but it's really highly recommended because when people don't use the form they tend to forget important or not be aware of important things that they have to include with their claim there is a staff committee that includes a member of the finance department a member of the city attorney's office and the administrator that reviews the claims uh and makes uh recommendations to the city administrator on how to handle the claims we do have a policy uh that went into effect in uh 2017 uh that basically authorizes the city administrator to handle uh and to make decisions on uh on claims uh where the request of the claim is up to $50,000 so that that does cover a large majority of the claim so typically what will happen then is the claim will come in it will come to the finance and personnel committee as a claim so you'll see that it's there but it's being handled internally and the process of uh deciding whether to pay the claim and paying the claim is is all handled and it doesn't come back to the committee then uh until it's ready to be reported on which is what happened you know we'll report on what happened beside the claim or be paid the claim in such and such an amount or uh be offered to you know pay the claim but they rejected rejected us in the rare situation where a claim is $50,000 or more then the committee does have to make those decisions and it comes back to council then to to basically ratify the committee's decisions as far as as claims go we do also keep in touch with our insurance carrier Sipmic we have a process whereby they are made aware of all the various types of claims including the claims that end up getting denied so that they can kind of help us track and then we track as well are there problem areas there are areas where something needs to happen it's also important to note that there are certain kinds of claims that are fairly common for which there are procedures in place uh where uh you know they may not if someone may not necessarily get paid out on their claim but there are still procedures for dealing with the issue so for an example uh when when a still plow knocks over a mailbox there is a process in place that the public works department has uh for for dealing with those things and and and you know it's it's ready to go so if you have questions about issues it's probably uh when it when it relates to a claim it's probably worth uh following up uh with my office uh or with the finance department or the administrator uh before um you know before you sort of make any sort of promises about anything with regard to a claim because we do we do this the system is is pretty um you know we it works pretty well um and we kind of have a standard for how to handle a lot of those things uh so that's really all I wanted to say on claims I can answer any questions if you have any thank you chuck is there any questions very good that'll conclude our orientation next item on the agenda is to adjourn all the person wolf thank you mayor I make a motion to adjourn okay thank you for that motion and support to adjourn all those in favor of adjournment please signify by saying aye aye opposed aye we stand adjourned thank you very much