1 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:14,220 If all there's a guest can please take their seats, we'll begin momentarily. 2 00:06:20,140 --> 00:06:29,540 So we have a couple of members of council that are joining remotely and they're having difficulty logging on. So we'll be just a couple more minutes until we can solve those technical difficulties and then we'll begin. We 3 00:09:32,680 --> 00:09:38,300 have a couple more members who will be joining us virtually. But we do have enough for quorum and so I will gavel us in. 4 00:09:40,840 --> 00:09:53,020 Good evening, everyone. The hour of 5 o'clock, having arrived on this Wednesday, September 9th is my honor to call to order this special council meeting for the city, state of the city address for 2026. 5 00:09:53,660 --> 00:09:59,920 First item of business before we begin the presentation is the pledge of allegiance of the flag if you could please join as you are able in 6 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:13,680 Please join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 7 00:10:20,380 --> 00:10:36,380 President Jorgensen, members of the city council, and my fellow residents of Racine. Thank you for joining me tonight for the 2026 state of the city. We have a great deal to be proud of this year. We have invested in our schools. We have invested in our neighborhoods. 8 00:10:36,380 --> 00:10:49,960 We have invested in the safety and well-being of the people who live here, and yet there are dark clouds on the horizon, because we are still working to free ourselves from disinvestment and from the constraints placed on us by the state and federal governments. 9 00:10:50,980 --> 00:10:55,300 So let me begin with the good news, and it begins where it should always begin with our kids. 10 00:10:56,200 --> 00:11:00,640 This is the time of year when parents rejoice at sending their children back to school. 11 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:06,080 With the school year underway, I would be remiss not to celebrate what our public schools mean to this community. 12 00:11:06,420 --> 00:11:10,720 The strength of this city is tied directly to the strength of its public schools. 13 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:14,300 So do the teachers and staff who came back to work this fall. 14 00:11:14,800 --> 00:11:15,480 Thank you. 15 00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:22,000 Your dedication will shape this community's future because you are shaping our most precious resource, our children. 16 00:11:22,560 --> 00:11:27,880 I am proud to say that all three of my children attend case high school and were seen unified schools. 17 00:11:27,880 --> 00:11:37,780 They are thriving and they will be ready for adulthood because of RUSD because of its IV program and because of the teachers who inspire them each in every single day. 18 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:46,540 This fall, many of our students returned to new or renovated classrooms because the voters of this community approved a school referendum. 19 00:11:47,240 --> 00:11:53,280 Just before the year began, I was glad to join ribbon cuttings at Case High School, Goodland School, and Waterwood School. 20 00:11:53,280 --> 00:12:01,640 And this spring, during one of our clean sweeps, we worked alongside students at the New Red Apple School to plant flowers for neighbors up and down the block. 21 00:12:02,260 --> 00:12:12,540 If you ever want proof that voting matters, remember this, a referendum that invests hundreds of millions of dollars in rebuilding and repairing our schools past by five votes. 22 00:12:12,940 --> 00:12:18,840 Not five percent, but literally five votes, out of tens of thousands of votes cast. 23 00:12:19,460 --> 00:12:22,120 Democracy matters, and every vote counts. 24 00:12:22,120 --> 00:12:26,880 Good schools do more than prepare young people to be workers and citizens. 25 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:30,920 They anchor neighborhoods and they are central to the revival of this city. 26 00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:35,500 Neighborhood reinvestment and repair remain a top priority for us. 27 00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:42,240 Alongside the school construction, the city has taken on project after project to strengthen the places our residents call home. 28 00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:50,920 We launched our clean sweep program, bringing city crews and city resources into one neighborhood at a time to trim trees, repair sidewalks, 29 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:54,840 Phil Potholes, Holloway Bulkie Waste, and Handout Smoke Detectors. 30 00:12:55,200 --> 00:13:01,260 The repair is matter, but what matters more is that the residents of those neighborhoods feel seen and appreciated. 31 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:10,520 Through our home repair and enhancement grants, we have delivered more than 1100 grants of $10,000 to each homeowner across each to homeowners across the city. 32 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:15,540 We're using federal funds to build houses with habitat for humanity in three neighborhoods. 33 00:13:15,540 --> 00:13:21,220 roads, and we launched Racine Rehab and Ready putting a $25,000 grant in place to bring 34 00:13:21,220 --> 00:13:24,520 a vacant house up to code and sold to a homeowner. 35 00:13:25,640 --> 00:13:26,800 All of it is working. 36 00:13:27,160 --> 00:13:32,580 Home ownership and Racine has climbed from approximately 51% to 62%. 37 00:13:32,840 --> 00:13:37,720 Pritchard Park apartments will add 266 new market rate units to the city. 38 00:13:38,520 --> 00:13:41,040 We have taken an all of the above approach to housing. 39 00:13:41,040 --> 00:13:48,520 Our goal is more home ownership, but our commitment is to every resident at every income level, 40 00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:51,500 rich or poor, owner and renter alike. 41 00:13:52,260 --> 00:13:54,760 We are especially excited about the Lincoln King neighborhood. 42 00:13:55,620 --> 00:14:00,340 A grant from Governor Evers allowed us to build 33 town homes, which will set self or 43 00:14:00,340 --> 00:14:05,000 half of what they cost us to build, putting home ownership within reach in that neighborhood. 44 00:14:05,460 --> 00:14:09,900 We rehabilitated eight more homes in that neighborhood, and we were building two other new homes 45 00:14:09,900 --> 00:14:11,000 with habitat free humanity. 46 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:17,120 As proud as we are of the housing, we may be proud of the new King Center now under construction. 47 00:14:17,780 --> 00:14:22,960 It opens early next year and it will offer not only new recreation space, but 48 00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:25,660 medical, dental, and behavioral health care services. 49 00:14:26,300 --> 00:14:32,260 Our public health department will be housed there as well so that we can improve community health from inside the community. 50 00:14:32,580 --> 00:14:36,080 It will be the first net zero building in the city, and 51 00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:39,720 And more than 20% of the hours worked on that site went to Racine Residence. 52 00:14:40,140 --> 00:14:43,460 This project will be transformative for 53 00:14:43,460 --> 00:14:49,500 the neighborhood, for the kids and families at Julian Thomas School right next door, and frankly for the entire city. 54 00:14:50,060 --> 00:14:59,340 My thanks to the staff and community members who gave so much to make it real and to President Biden, Senator Baldwin, and Governor Evers for directing the funding our way. 55 00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:29,700 We're continuing to pull unsafe led service lines out of our drinking water system. More than 1200 residents have signed off on replacing lines this year, and close to 400 are already complete. My administration made a promise to remove those lines, and with resources from the infrastructure law, we secured a $40 million grant to get there faster. Ride, our bus system now has a solar array helping to power our bus fleet, thanks to a grant from Senator Baldwin. And then there's passenger rail. 56 00:15:29,700 --> 00:15:34,260 Passing your rail has been talked about in Southeast Wisconsin for decades. 57 00:15:34,900 --> 00:15:37,960 Sometimes they say it's an idea that so good, it cannot go away. 58 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:44,700 When the bipartisan infrastructure law passed a few years ago, it set aside billions of dollars for new rail corridors. 59 00:15:45,260 --> 00:15:56,980 To be ready for it, recene, join Kenosha, Katahei, and Milwaukee, informing an intergovernmental body, the Mark Rail Commission to be able to apply for those funds when they become available. 60 00:15:56,980 --> 00:16:01,160 It will connect downtown Racine to the airport, to Racine and 61 00:16:01,160 --> 00:16:03,480 Kenosha, and to the metro line on to Chicago. 62 00:16:03,840 --> 00:16:11,840 If it comes to fruition, it could spark more than $1 billion in investment and put tens of thousands of residents within reach of a job. 63 00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:15,900 At Lakeview Park, we installed new playground equipment. 64 00:16:16,260 --> 00:16:19,560 I have not driven past it without seeing children playing. 65 00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:24,840 I am glad we could give this community something that has brought so much joy to so many families. 66 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:33,540 and gun violence and homicides are declining as our police self crime and our Department of Community Safety works upstream to interrupt its causes. 67 00:16:34,640 --> 00:16:43,780 Alongside our investment in schools, housing and community centers, we are investing in people, helping our residents into jobs that can support a family. 68 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:52,420 Our youth employment program, our police and fire cadet program, and our commercial drivers license training have opened city jobs to more city residents. 69 00:16:52,420 --> 00:16:57,620 more than half the people we hired this year live in Racine or moved here to take the job. 70 00:16:58,100 --> 00:17:03,200 Compare that with the roughly one third of our current workforce who live in the city, and you can measure that progress. 71 00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:10,120 I want to single out the police department and the library in particular, who make big strides in this regard in the last two years. 72 00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:18,040 We also celebrated America's 250th birthday with a wonderful event on July 5th and a time capsule to mark the occasion. 73 00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:23,040 We added a new sister city of Brantford, Ontario, and we welcome visits from our sister 74 00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:25,560 city mayors in Mexico and France. 75 00:17:26,420 --> 00:17:30,440 All in all, there is much to be proud of in the progress that this city is making. 76 00:17:31,800 --> 00:17:36,540 Most serious threats we face come from outside these walls, but before I turn to them, there 77 00:17:36,540 --> 00:17:39,640 are two mayors here at home that I hope this council will address. 78 00:17:40,500 --> 00:17:44,840 The first very recently we discussed, which is flocked cameras and their security around 79 00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:45,080 it. 80 00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:49,400 Let me be clear, the said yesterday I will not include funding for 81 00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:52,880 flock cameras in the budget that I produce on October 5th. 82 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:56,280 Serious concerns have been raised by residents of this city, 83 00:17:56,800 --> 00:18:00,400 by more than two dozen Wisconsin law enforcement agencies that have already 84 00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:05,100 terminated their flock contracts and by a growing number of jurisdictions across the country. 85 00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:07,640 We should end this relationship now. 86 00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:11,600 Give her police time, they think they need to close pending investigations, 87 00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:13,760 but do not wait until the end of the year. 88 00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:18,960 every week we wait diminishes the community's trust and confidence in its own city. 89 00:18:19,540 --> 00:18:21,860 On Tuesday, the council faces a choice. 90 00:18:22,500 --> 00:18:26,140 Stand with the residents and their legitimate privacy concerns or flock. 91 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:28,860 I hope this council stands with the community. 92 00:18:30,140 --> 00:18:33,160 The second is the pace at which the council hands out liquor licenses. 93 00:18:33,980 --> 00:18:38,580 Our community survey told us plainly what residents want in our comprehensive plans. 94 00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:43,520 They want fewer bars, fewer liquor stores, fewer pawn shops and fewer payday lenders. 95 00:18:43,520 --> 00:18:47,080 And yet we go on handing out liquor licenses like their jelly beans. 96 00:18:47,500 --> 00:18:51,920 You can buy alcohol in every city, in the neighborhood in this city. 97 00:18:52,140 --> 00:18:53,660 This is not about prohibition. 98 00:18:54,360 --> 00:18:55,240 It's about concentration. 99 00:18:56,160 --> 00:19:01,620 Licenses clustered in low income neighborhoods, next door to homeless services, down the street from schools. 100 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:11,040 No community in America has ever revitalized itself with an abundance of liquor stores in neighborhoods that were once redlined, not a single one. 101 00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:18,020 What those neighborhoods need is decent housing, good jobs, human services, strong schools, 102 00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:19,140 and public safety. 103 00:19:19,780 --> 00:19:25,200 And it is not only how many licenses we grant, it is how slowly we hold bad ones accountable. 104 00:19:25,780 --> 00:19:31,100 Some establishments drain substantial police resources month after month and agrarate the 105 00:19:31,100 --> 00:19:33,560 quality of life for everyone living around them. 106 00:19:34,120 --> 00:19:38,620 For the good of this city, I am asking the council to take a harder look at the license holders 107 00:19:38,620 --> 00:19:43,380 we already have, and a more skeptical look at every new application that comes before you. 108 00:19:46,370 --> 00:19:47,950 Now are the threats from beyond our borders. 109 00:19:48,990 --> 00:19:52,230 So I'm going to start by saying I am proud of what this administration, our staff, 110 00:19:52,810 --> 00:19:56,410 our partners, and our community members have accomplished this year, but make no mistake 111 00:19:56,830 --> 00:19:59,970 if our relationship with the state and federal government does not- 112 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:29,260 That change, the city is in for a dire future. For more than two decades, the state legislature has squeezed cities financially while forbidding us from acting on our own behalf. That is not an accident. It's the product of 20 years of Republican dominance in Madison. As state funding fell, the cost of city services shifted onto property taxpayers. Our state aid was cut or held flat for nearly all of that time until the last two years. Consider this. 113 00:20:29,260 --> 00:20:33,240 had funding to receive, simply kept pace with inflation over those two decades. 114 00:20:33,820 --> 00:20:38,620 This city would have received more than $300 million more than it did. 115 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:43,420 Imagine what that would mean for the city, for the services we could provide, 116 00:20:43,700 --> 00:20:48,400 for the buildings that need to be rebuilt, and for the property tax bill of every family in this room. 117 00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:54,020 President Biden's American Rescue Plan brought the city many benefits, and 118 00:20:54,020 --> 00:20:58,360 chief amongst them was helping closing our structural deficit with the American Rescue Plan. 119 00:20:59,260 --> 00:21:01,720 This is the last year we can use those dollars. 120 00:21:02,220 --> 00:21:09,120 Going forward, we will need partners in the legislature who understand what is at stake when local government is starved. 121 00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:13,180 And alongside the defunding has come the assault on local control. 122 00:21:13,860 --> 00:21:18,260 More than 100 bills have been signed into the law to strip authority from communities like ours. 123 00:21:18,660 --> 00:21:23,900 Housing, raising the minimum wage, rules for landlords, inspections of our rental units, 124 00:21:23,900 --> 00:21:33,240 labor standards, public health standards, infrastructure, and environmental protection on subject after subject, we are preempted, prohibited, or banned. 125 00:21:34,300 --> 00:21:37,200 Local control was once a Wisconsin virtue. 126 00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:40,300 It gave communities the freedom to govern themselves. 127 00:21:40,860 --> 00:21:48,960 It let municipalities be laboratories of democracy, testing ideas, learning what works, and sharing what we learned with one another. 128 00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:52,440 Again, here are just a few things that we can't even consider. 129 00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:56,000 We're not allowed to consider raising the rate minimum wage. 130 00:21:56,300 --> 00:22:00,120 We can't further regulating rental housing any further than we already do. 131 00:22:00,460 --> 00:22:02,100 We're not allowed to inspect group homes. 132 00:22:02,580 --> 00:22:06,820 We can't set building code standards that exceed the state standard, regardless of our safety concerns. 133 00:22:07,380 --> 00:22:12,100 We can't set labor standards for any of the projects that we have here, beyond a certain point. 134 00:22:12,860 --> 00:22:17,920 In this semi-quince antennae a year, there are many ways the state could honor the American experiment. 135 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:22,900 the best of them would be to give cities back the freedom to govern themselves. 136 00:22:24,660 --> 00:22:29,100 Of all the concerns I have raised tonight, it is the federal government that worries me the most. 137 00:22:29,620 --> 00:22:34,440 And that is because what is under assault there is not simply our budget, it's our values. 138 00:22:35,540 --> 00:22:40,580 Racine is a diverse community, home to many immigrant groups, races, and ethnicities. 139 00:22:41,120 --> 00:22:42,840 That is one of our greatest strengths. 140 00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:45,120 But we now find ourselves in distress. 141 00:22:45,120 --> 00:22:49,980 Yes, watching an assault on our democratic values that comes not from some foreign adversary, 142 00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:52,080 but from our own federal government. 143 00:22:52,540 --> 00:22:57,040 The climate of fear that ICE has created in our immigrant community has done a reputable 144 00:22:57,040 --> 00:22:57,380 harm. 145 00:22:58,140 --> 00:23:03,320 Unfair trade tariffs are raising prices here at home and alienating allies we have stood 146 00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:04,360 beside for generations. 147 00:23:05,220 --> 00:23:09,320 Food assistance and healthcare benefits have been cut for our most vulnerable neighbors. 148 00:23:10,460 --> 00:23:14,760 Efforts to open city jobs and programs to underrepresented people are being dismantled 149 00:23:14,760 --> 00:23:18,740 along with diversity, equity, and inclusion work of every kind. 150 00:23:19,700 --> 00:23:24,780 Currently, interference of the male in ballots puts free and fair elections themselves in jeopardy. 151 00:23:25,580 --> 00:23:27,580 That's a short list drawn from a long one. 152 00:23:28,020 --> 00:23:31,220 These actions do not merely wound us as a matter of policy, 153 00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:33,680 the offend are most basic values. 154 00:23:34,820 --> 00:23:38,780 President Trump has been one of the most negative and disruptive forces of my lifetime, 155 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:43,760 but he is one man, and in a little more than two years, he will be out of office. 156 00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:46,980 What must not lead with him is our principles. 157 00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:55,080 We must summon the strength to hold fast, to opportunity, to fairness and justice for all Americans, whatever their background. 158 00:23:55,660 --> 00:24:01,380 Because if the state of the city is to be strong, we have to come through the next two years with our principles intact. 159 00:24:02,420 --> 00:24:09,180 Sometimes showing up for America means having the resolve to stand up to America when it is acting unjustly. 160 00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:15,900 That is why in this 250th year I still hold enormous hope for our future as a city and 161 00:24:15,900 --> 00:24:18,380 as a country and as why I will end with this. 162 00:24:18,940 --> 00:24:23,700 The way to fix what is wrong with us is to embrace what is right about us and I can think 163 00:24:23,700 --> 00:24:28,460 of no clear act of fidelity to what is right about this country than to exercise your right 164 00:24:28,460 --> 00:24:28,960 to vote. 165 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:34,720 Whether you agree with everything I said here tonight or none of it, I hope every person listening 166 00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:40,040 will show fidelity to the country I believe we all love by voting in a free and fair election. 167 00:24:41,300 --> 00:24:45,560 In two days, we will mark the 25th anniversary of the tax of September 11th, 2001. 168 00:24:46,540 --> 00:24:51,040 Let us remember the sacrifice of those we lost and let us recommit ourselves to this project of 169 00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:56,880 ours, the longest serving democracy of the world. Thank you. God bless each and every one of you. 170 00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:59,980 God bless for seeing and God bless the United States of America. 171 00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:01,400 Good night. 172 00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:25,420 At this time, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. It's a motion to adjourn in multiple seconds. All those in favor, please say aye. Opposed?