[0:00] Oh,

[0:03] all the board of trustees and the um HR and finance uh boards together for a

[0:10] joint uh budget workshop meeting called order. Uh number two, pledge allegiance

[0:14] to the flag. If you all stand, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the

[0:19] United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under

[0:25] God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

[0:29] » Thank you all. Roll call for >> here.

[0:36] He's excused. Beck >> here.

[0:40] here. >> Here

[0:46] » finance and HR. Olsson >> here.

[0:49] » Here. >> Daniels

[0:50] » here. >> Mel,

[0:54] » here. >> Ricker

[0:55] » here. >> Boy, thank you. Uh, public comments. I'm

[1:01] just going to take them in the order I received them. So, Grace, if you could

[1:04] uh join us. >> Grace.

[1:09] 603 Jessica from Weston. Um, my comment is on the little thing that you added

[1:15] about potentially giving Village of West employees off on a Friday afternoon. I'm

[1:20] not saying that I agree with it or disagree with it, but however, I don't

[1:23] know how many people that are employed by Village West are salary or hour. On

[1:28] salary, it's not going to make any difference because on salary to get paid

[1:32] to get the job done and however many hours it takes, it takes. However, I

[1:36] also see that we're having a discussion on reclassifying one of the people that

[1:40] was an engineer engineering tech. I don't know exactly which one it was, but

[1:44] I'm sure it was one of Mike's guys. Now, we're taking him back to um hourly from

[1:49] salaried and probably very well within the law. I'll have to agree with that.

[1:52] But then we're back dating um overtime back to August. So, I'm going to assume

[1:57] this individual has overtime during the months of June, July, and August that

[2:01] most of Mike's guys are probably working out. They're doing some things during

[2:05] the summer that will have extra overtime. So, I'm going to say if you

[2:09] guys are going to do this, when you do it with the elderly people, I would hope

[2:13] that we're only paying them for the actual hours worked, but that we're

[2:16] taking it into consideration when we do calculate overtime that if the the core

[2:21] of the overtime is at 40 hours a week, not x number of hours per day because I

[2:27] don't know how your benefits and all of your salaries line up. But in the past,

[2:30] I've worked for both where over eight hours a day was automatic and I've

[2:34] worked for places over 40 hours. I would hope that you would take that into

[2:37] consideration that hourly people get paid for if it's 34 hours that week,

[2:41] they get paid for 34 hours. That they do not get paid on the taxpayers's dime and

[2:46] that it gets rolled into the calculation for overtime. So, if they are working

[2:51] overtime on any of the other days, potentially they're working overtime or

[2:54] straight time versus time and a half, a taxpayers's expense. Thank you.

[3:00] Just a quick clarification. Um, we pay over 40 hours, right?

[3:05] » Correct. >> Over eight.

[3:06] » Yep. Okay. All right. Uh, let's see. Number two. Uh, Jim, I got you as number

[3:11] two. >> Good evening. Jim Pel,

[3:16] at the last meeting, an absolutely phenomenal question was asked. What is

[3:20] the expense increase for every 1% change in salary? I've been involved in

[3:24] following this budget process for four years now and this is the first time

[3:28] I've witnessed that question being asked. But it is a super important one.

[3:32] We should determine what the actual budgetary impact of taking that action

[3:36] is. There was no answer last time as if this unprecedented request would require

[3:42] computing power leveraging quantum quantum computing levels of calculation.

[3:47] Or maybe in the 30 years of the village adopting budgets, not a single person

[3:52] thought to ask this question. Thankfully, one wise woman made that

[3:56] ask, and we were all told that the answer would be provided. Fast forward 2

[4:00] weeks, and the meeting packet for tonight lands on the lesson website. It

[4:04] even has the question specifically called out in an RFC, but what does not

[4:08] exist? Well, the answer to that question, instead we're directed to a

[4:12] cryptic spreadsheet that is provided, lacking totals and columns or context

[4:16] needed to interpret the data. After spending way too long with a calculator

[4:20] trying to re reverse engineer the answer, I just called over the village

[4:23] to ask for help. No one in the finance department was in the office on Friday

[4:27] at 10:19 a.m. to assist. I was transferred to administrator Gabri.

[4:33] She was unable to unravel what a 1% raise total was by looking at the

[4:37] spreadsheet either. [clears throat] Now, if the administrator herself, who was

[4:41] intimately involved with the budget, cannot decipher the answer, how's a

[4:44] resident supposed to figure it out, more alarming, how is an educa, how is an

[4:49] elected official supposed to figure it out and then be expected to make an

[4:53] educated decision on the budget? This leads me to another topic for discussion

[4:57] on the agenda this evening. Discussion to action on modified summer hours for

[5:01] 2027. I can say that I am 100% in opposition to closing this building on

[5:06] Fridays or any additional holidays at this time. The role of government is to

[5:11] serve the residents and this cannot be done with the doors shuttered. And

[5:14] really, we're not being fair across all departments either. Water, streets,

[5:18] police, fire, those folks are expected to work and do their jobs every single

[5:23] day. Is the expectation that when it snows on New Year's Eve that the roads

[5:27] will not be plowed? How about should we close the pool on Junth, should a

[5:31] resident not be allowed to pull a permit on Friday when it's sunny outside? Just

[5:35] cuz everyone else is doing it, we should too, right? This couldn't be further

[5:38] from the truth. Making this change would benefit the white collar and

[5:41] administrative staff while unfairly leaving the remainder of the employees

[5:45] behind. Seems short-sighted at best. I could support having one day per week,

[5:50] which was a later start, and offices remained open later into the evening,

[5:54] though. This would provide increased exposure to residents. If you're

[5:58] scheduled to work 8 to 5 and the village hall is open 8 to 4:30, it's basically

[6:02] impossible for anyone to do business here without taking off of work. Ask me

[6:06] how I know. Staying open until 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. would facilitate working folks

[6:12] an opportunity to come in here. If a if the bank can be open until 6 PM on a

[6:16] Friday, one day per week, it's not unreasonable for the village hall to be

[6:20] as well. Oh, by the way, where's that PowerPoint presentation for tonight? It

[6:25] certainly doesn't exist in the packet. Can we please make this stuff public for

[6:30] everyone to enjoy? It was missing last time, too.

[6:36] [clears throat] >> Um, it's in the packet, right?

[6:39] » It is in the packet. >> Yeah, it's in the packet.

[6:42] » It was added today. added today.

[6:44] » Yep, >> it was added today.

[6:50] » Let's see. And last, John,

[6:55] 1506 Daily Avenue. Um, [clears throat] what I'm here for is they're just went

[7:00] through and did Western did a water check for all the houses. They came

[7:04] through and checked her. Make sure you're up to date for the anti-scip.

[7:07] Well, I got a letter today. The guy came to inspect my house. I got to replace

[7:11] faucet, which is okay. And then there's a few other things I got to do that's

[7:15] really simple with a faucet. Today [clears throat] I got a letter from this

[7:18] from Weston. It says in that letter that I need a licensed electric licensed

[7:23] plumber to replace these things plus a test.

[7:27] And to me, I don't understand why I need a licensed plumber to threw three little

[7:33] things on a faucet. I go buy at Ace Hardware and replace anti-ciphon faucet.

[7:39] I've done these for years, built houses, I've done it for years.

[7:44] But my question is, if I got to have it inspect like that, did he inspect every

[7:48] house in Weston for the anti-ciphon to make sure it was working? If not, why

[7:54] should I have to have mine inspected by somebody where I can have the receipt

[7:57] and say this is brand new? So, that's something I got from the city of the

[8:01] Weston today. And I thought it was a state ordinance, but then it says it's a

[8:05] Weston ordinance that somebody you guys must have put in. My house was built in

[8:10] 1960 and it's been working fine since then.

[8:14] So why all of a sudden this has got to be can't be cut grandfathered in? That's

[8:19] my opinion on that. Okay. >> Thank you.

[8:27] » All right. Uh let's see. Minutes from previous meeting number four, approval

[8:30] of August 24th, 2026 joint budget workshop meeting. Approval by both um

[8:36] committee and board. >> Okay. So, we'll need a approval by HR

[8:41] finance and approval by board. >> HR finance.

[8:45] » I'll make a motion to approve that. >> Motion by Daniels. Is there a second?

[8:49] » Second. >> Second by I forget your last name. I can

[8:52] never say Pavlo. Any discussion on the motion?

[8:57] Not. All those in favor signify by saying I.

[9:00] » I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries.

[9:02] » Okay. Same uh approval of August 24th, 26 for the board.

[9:06] » I'll make a motion to approve. >> Motion by Beck.

[9:09] » Second. >> Second by Emrling. Um all those in favor

[9:12] say I. >> I. Opposed. So carried. Thank you.

[9:17] Unfinished business. Number five, review and discussion of 2027 budget. Uh

[9:22] general fund review levy uh breakdown for fixed fees, non-discretionary and

[9:27] personal expenses. All other funds except utilities, wage questions,

[9:30] followup, benefits, renewal update if >> just we're going to go to the Okay,

[9:36] thank you. >> So we have a presentation tonight. I see

[9:40] there's still one more copy on the table if someone would like a paper copy.

[9:45] Jessica and I will probably be going back and forth on most of the slides

[9:50] until we get to the special revenue funds. Then Jessica will talk about

[9:53] those. But if any of the directors want to add any comments to I thought given

[9:59] we we grouped them all together, the items that were under this agenda, we

[10:04] won't necessarily take them in order. We thought we maybe would start with the

[10:08] wage and benefit estimate. So the the chart that you had in the packet was

[10:13] both wage and benefits. So it took into account the preliminary 10% increase

[10:20] that we received for health insurance. Again, that's preliminary. We don't know

[10:25] that's where it will end up. But we did account for that in the budget because

[10:30] that is what was shared with us by our provider. Five.

[10:35] Then we did the zero, the one, the two, the two and a half, and the three.

[10:42] Again, fund 21, which is where the TIFF is. Those dollars have to come back into

[10:48] general. So the first slide is what was the chart that was in your packet. The

[10:55] next slide is just that percentage by fund. So, in

[11:03] general, a 1% raise, not taking into account that the tiff is moving back to

[11:10] general, just that 1% raise is the $17,583.50

[11:16] and then the subsequent two, 2 and a half, and 3%.

[11:20] And it's broken by fund.

[11:27] » I think I would just pause there and make sure that

[11:32] Are there follow-up questions? Is that the information

[11:36] that was being looked for? >> I think Christina, were you the one that

[11:41] asked that question? Is this what you're looking for?

[11:45] » I Yes. Yeah, I think so. >> I think it is. But the math isn't

[11:50] working for me as I do the math. And so that's where I guess I'm getting

[11:53] confused because if I do like let's say we take the wage and benefits, right?

[11:57] Because the general fund >> the 2.7

[12:01] that's total right at what we're expensing right now 0% correct in 2026

[12:07] » that's so 1% more would be what that 2.74 is

[12:12] that math [clears throat] didn't math out for what I had there I had 1 or I

[12:16] had 2 73

[12:21] 4 73 so I guess how was the formula written in this

[12:26] spread or like how is how did you get that number?

[12:30] » You took all the wages in the general fund. Some it's not a straight increase

[12:34] because the all the wages in the general fund include all election workers which

[12:38] there was no scheduled wage increase for includes all committees and board

[12:43] members and it's not a flat 1% increase across the board because some of those

[12:49] don't have scheduled increases. I guess maybe that's a note I would have put on

[12:53] here that like this 1% includes all hourly and salaried staff getting 1% my

[12:58] and board members whoever else you just listed not getting them because when I'm

[13:02] doing the math I'm like someone's not doing math on this sheet correctly. So

[13:06] that would have been helpful to know I think prior to to getting this or even

[13:10] just like an asterk on the bottom maybe would be helpful.

[13:15] » Yes, my math and that'll be there. That's why I was a little confused to

[13:18] begin with. And then the difference category on

[13:22] below each one. What's that difference doing? Is that doing the difference

[13:26] between the zero and the 1%. Or like how what does the difference mean?

[13:32] » It's the increase. So under the 1% uh 278 299 that would be the increase over

[13:38] the 257600. So roughly about $21,000. Right. Am I saying that right? So you're

[13:45] saying the difference what the >> that difference is you know

[13:49] » oh good question actually why would there be a question why would there be a

[13:52] difference >> difference is with the estimate so we

[13:55] kind of shrunk this >> um the original one was in the packet so

[13:59] the differences between the 0% in benefits plus the estimate so the

[14:03] difference between the estimate and 0% >> and a lot of that increases health

[14:08] insurance

[14:11] and WRS went up so that's would be the 257. It's It's based off the estimate.

[14:18] Um estimate's really not a great thing to compare against. Um we gave you a ton

[14:23] of information and I guess this could be a starting of a conversation if you want

[14:29] to clarify what you want us to bring back, but there's a lot of information

[14:33] and a lot of interpretation. So it's a great starting conversation.

[14:39] I >> understand your question the difference

[14:41] on zero. Why would there be a difference at zero?

[14:43] » Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay.

[14:45] Do you understand that the 257600 under zero? Am I What am I not seeing?

[14:52] » Benefits went up. Even though there's a 0% increase, the benefits are going up.

[14:56] » Okay. And are we are we figuring that out?

[14:59] » And it's also what you're not seeing is some people were only part-time because

[15:03] they were just so

[15:06] » estimating 10%. What are we estimating? 10%.

[15:09] » 10% for health insurance. >> Okay. So then that would correlate to

[15:11] the 10%. And then some don't have the insurance. So that's why it's a little

[15:15] less in than a 2.720, you know, whatever.

[15:19] » Okay. I think >> I think it's next slide.

[15:28] » If you're looking for straight dollars,

[15:34] » sorry slide is just the wage. I was going to say I see wages and benefits.

[15:38] So the next one, the other one is just the wage.

[15:43] » Wage. Yep. >> So then you would subtract the two just

[15:46] to find out how much the benefit portion is.

[15:47] » Right. >> So looking at that, you're obviously it

[15:51] is just wages. So under zero it's nothing. And then 1717 and 88 and 87 for

[15:56] another full percent which would be a little bit more than 17 but 175 which is

[16:02] about the same as the other two. But you can't take column 0 times 1%

[16:07] because that's not going to give you what is in 1%. You have to add in that

[16:10] odd u subset of people who So that's I guess that's where the confusion was.

[16:16] » I was math here and this isn't mathing out.

[16:18] » Glad I wasn't the only one. >> Yeah, I couldn't figure it out. I know

[16:23] accounting is not forte. That's Jessica's special special specialtity,

[16:27] but I could not figure it out either. We so if you look at the spreadsheet

[16:32] there's a lot of hidden columns. We could unhide them all and present all

[16:36] that information if you want to see it but um people get really overwhelmed

[16:40] with a lot of numbers. >> Could you send a spreadsheet like the

[16:45] spreadsheet itself and not just a PDF? >> Sure. or

[16:51] » or just some just some notes just some context to the numbers as you know maybe

[16:57] not all the columns but just some additional assumptions that were used to

[17:00] calculate the numbers I think might be beneficial so as we're looking at them

[17:05] we would know what the numbers what numbers were used to get to the numbers

[17:09] that you have >> without all the columns might be helpful

[17:12] too >> and then could those notes be added to

[17:17] this second agenda that came out today with this piece. Could that be added to

[17:22] that so that it's in the record and public?

[17:26] » Sure. Okay. >> We we did that last time. We we added

[17:29] the conversation about the priorities to that.

[17:33] » I think this is a good example though why you just don't take the information

[17:37] in pocket and try to understand it. There's context behind it and it's

[17:42] important that we just don't put information out there because then it

[17:45] gets misinterpreted. And I guess this is a really good example of let's talk

[17:50] about the spreadsheet and what it means. I just don't want you going off and

[17:53] thinking what it means. Um problem with presenting the information ahead of

[17:57] schedule. >> I would agree with that. But if we're

[18:00] prepping for meetings, it'd be nice to know why the math isn't working. That's

[18:04] I guess just if we want to sit here and be prepared to come to these meetings,

[18:06] it'd be helpful to know why the math on 1% isn't mapping out on 1%.

[18:11] » If it was just a 1% increase, that would have been a really simple thing that we

[18:14] could have talked about during. There's a ton of information. That's why we just

[18:18] didn't give you a 1% increase um at the last meetings.

[18:23] » And just to clarify, Jessica, you said that the benefits increase on here

[18:26] includes WRS and health insurance, correct?

[18:29] » Okay. >> Health insurance, life insurance, we're

[18:32] all getting older and life insurance, is it cheaper when you get older? So,

[18:35] » it's true. That's all. >> And it's still an estimate standing,

[18:38] right? It's not We don't have a firm number yet.

[18:40] » We do not. And not on health insurance. So, we have a firm number on WRS on the

[18:44] increase there. But, and then life insurance, like those are

[18:48] our >> life insurance always changes halfway

[18:52] through the year. So, we don't get a really a heads up. Like, if it would

[18:54] have changed this past June, we would know, but um for next June, I don't know

[18:59] if we've I haven't received any information.

[19:03] [clears throat]

[19:11] I'm just going to scroll quick to while we're still talking about wage and

[19:16] benefits to the rest of those follow-up questions that were part of the RFC

[19:22] » because it was asked where are people within the salary chart and we have that

[19:27] there we have 37 full-time and three part-time and how that's broken down in

[19:32] the below the midpoint at the midpoint and over the midpoint. point.

[19:39] Also, just an approximate number if all the staff were to move to the midpoint,

[19:44] what that would mean. And the total years of service only to

[19:49] the village of Weston within those 37 employees

[19:55] is 459 years. That's not in public service. It's only to the village of

[19:59] Weston. Um, we don't have any compression issues

[20:03] currently. It was asked about merit and market and

[20:08] I did attach the form that we use for merit and market and just detailed out

[20:12] the process that comes back in in January and that

[20:16] form is completed by the department heads.

[20:19] The 1% increase we just talked through those two charts.

[20:24] Um an approximate of what that 10%

[20:29] preliminary increase would be in health insurance. Again, that's budget to

[20:33] budget, not actual to actual. And then what is the average of our

[20:38] salary and the average of our hourly?

[20:46] So just in talking about wage, we just also included a little information here

[20:50] about what is what is the cost if you had to replace an employee.

[20:59] So sherm I know there's at least two members of sherm here says that the the

[21:04] cost is between nine six to nine months taking that from the average salary and

[21:10] then just a little bit more about the direct and indirect costs.

[21:17] So, if we make this very simple for us

[21:22] simple-minded people, are you telling me that on the spreadsheet where it says

[21:26] under a 3% um wage and benefit, it says the

[21:31] difference of $319,000 that if we give a 3% benefit or a wage

[21:36] increase this year that it's going to cost us $319,000?

[21:43] Is that what this chart is saying? >> Yes. Okay.

[21:50] » I think um just in my personal opinion um

[21:56] I feel like these conversations are out of order. Um I I don't know how I could

[22:02] possibly have a good conversation about wages and employee retention when I

[22:10] don't have any idea what the overall budget um is looking like. I just I feel

[22:15] like this is backwards.

[22:21] » Let's go a little bit more into general fund. So, what we're we'll talk about

[22:27] more tonight in general fund is is 2026 leading up to 2027. We will start the

[22:33] general fund conversation just a little bit later hoping to get closer to that

[22:37] final number on health insurance. Um but

[22:44] kind of talking about how general fund is broke apart.

[22:48] This is how operating expenses in a in pyigraph and then in in number form

[22:53] broke apart for 2026. The reason we're kind of sharing this

[22:57] for general fund is that's where that's where the tax revenue goes, right? Your

[23:01] your there's no levy in in your utility. Your levy is is in the general fund. uh

[23:07] you have a little levy in pool which we'll talk about under special revenue

[23:10] but this is where that that tax levy is. So right now uh and this will be what it

[23:17] is going forward right because we have contractual agreements 55% of your

[23:21] general fund is public safety those are contractual agreements.

[23:28] So we just broke that down. This being by department,

[23:32] this being a little bit more up by major categories just to look at it two

[23:36] different ways. So again, doing it in in graphical form and then breaking apart

[23:41] those numbers. personnel, non-discretionary, your

[23:46] utilities, your salt, your audit, um your assessor, fuel, your other fixed

[23:52] fees, just noting out there, your your two contracts uh of public safety are

[23:58] the essentially 52% over 51%. And then your other expenditures

[24:08] just kind of showing when I mean when we talk about levy and we talk about

[24:12] savings um that's not in that's not in your other special funds that's not in

[24:17] your utility funds. We're we're talking about general fund.

[24:21] » Just be quick with your fixed you said this will be a fixed fee for the public

[24:25] safety but in reality if we're adding three firefighters in 27 that's going to

[24:28] go up as well. Correct. It will go up. But what I'm It's It's a fixed fee

[24:32] because you have a contract with them, right?

[24:34] » So it's at least that much is what you're saying.

[24:35] » Yeah. >> Okay.

[24:36] » Jamie, what's the in the general fund that other all other What is what falls

[24:40] into that? The 49459 >> usually contingency.

[24:46] » Okay.

[24:50] » What was that kid already? >> All other

[24:53] 494 age.

[24:56] » It's usually contingency. That's what it is. It's contingency and isn't it merit

[25:00] and market? It's our it's been the 15,000 for merit and market and

[25:04] contingency.

[25:11] » A lot of times we'll budget the funds there and then when we need a budget

[25:15] adjustment, we'll take the funds from there and put them to the appropriate

[25:18] department.

[25:26] So, every year there's this nice chart. Um, Jessica does this nice chart as part

[25:30] of the budget book, but just shows you the the prior year budget, the proposed

[25:37] budget, that net change, and then the increase or decrease.

[25:41] And we we just wanted to show this because in 2025, our net new

[25:45] construction was very good. That was a big piece of that was that Amazon was

[25:50] done completely on January 1 and came onto the tax ROS. And with that 2.29%

[25:56] increase in net new construction, that gave us an allowable increase in the the

[26:00] levy of $131,390.

[26:04] But our increases just in our contract with public safety were $293,000

[26:11] over that. So in 2026, our net new construction is

[26:15] the 1.692 with that's that estimated increase

[26:20] 95,191. We will have the onetime adjustment

[26:24] because of the closure of the TIFF which we estimate at about $400,000.

[26:34] Adding one additional piece into into this whole sort of revenue and

[26:38] expenditure mix. We just also want to cover transportation aids

[26:44] and just reflecting where we are getting that number back up

[26:50] and in and making those expenditures in our transportation system so we can get

[26:55] to where we were with our GTA.

[27:01] With that said, we've taken those increases in GTA, but we've decreased

[27:06] the public works budget. Some of that's been transferred over to borrowing, but

[27:10] there's been less in public works even though we're getting more GTA.

[27:19] » Do you want to add anything more, Michael?

[27:24] » No. I mean, I guess the crux of it is we we figure it out. I

[27:29] mean, well, you know, I have that grid graphic just a little bit later. Okay.

[27:34] Yeah. I mean um so as you know I guess we try to be very conscious too of you

[27:40] know kind of projecting out the transportation aids that 2031 time

[27:45] period is kind of where everything's going to likely plateau or even start

[27:49] coming down even more. So u the there's a fixed formula and it has a six-year

[27:55] average and then it lags a year. So, you know, we can I guess just to we have

[28:02] options for a few years, but then after that, we just need to be conscious that

[28:05] we don't commit funds to a spot where we're going to start losing revenue

[28:09] again. So, >> I also want to point out I don't

[28:12] everyone sees that downward, but they don't if you look at the actual numbers,

[28:17] those were very large $100,000, 110, 90, 80, those were reductions in

[28:24] revenue every year. Um, not a lot of you are here, but that those were very tough

[28:29] years for the village. We we made a lot of the magic happen behind the scenes.

[28:35] If you just saw, we have a levy increase of $95,000 with a 1.6% increase back in

[28:44] 2012, 2014.

[28:48] Our levy increases weren't that much more. So, we were covering a $100,000

[28:53] transportation aid decrease with a levy increase of 95,000. Um, the staff here

[29:00] have had really hard times. So, when you're talking about moving forward and

[29:04] a lot of surplus and there's something somewhere, we already found a lot of the

[29:08] something somewhere um since 2012. There's that was a very rough stretch.

[29:14] We have not had transportation rate increase, the transportation aid

[29:20] increase until 2022. That was our first year. I mean, the budget finally got a

[29:25] little bit easier. Um, but now it looks like we're we're heading down eventually

[29:31] we'll be heading down again or at least plateauing.

[29:35] » And you're estimating that plateau at 30 in 2030?

[29:38] » Some somewhere in there. Yeah. >> Okay.

[29:41] » You know, I I guess Yeah. I my first full year at the village was 2011. So I

[29:44] was like, "Hey, this is great." And then every year after that, it was how do we

[29:48] plug a hundred plus thousand dollar gap? >> 10 years.

[29:51] » Yeah. >> And now it's going back up.

[29:53] » We're going back up. Yeah. >> Thousand a year.

[29:56] » Yeah. >> Approximately.

[30:01] » That's where we keep on warning. If you continue to use transportation aid for

[30:06] non-transportation stuff, you're decreasing that transportation expense

[30:11] number, which is going to eventually limit the amount of transportation aid

[30:16] we're getting. So, just being conscious of making sure that transportation aid

[30:21] is going to public works and streets. >> Did that 10-year decrease happen in all

[30:26] municipalities? >> No.

[30:28] » No. That's what I thought. I thought we talked about

[30:30] » what happened was our tiff district had a ton of in infrastructure

[30:35] and then when we stopped doing infrastructure specifically the tiff

[30:39] districts cuz the hospital area was all built up right so we stopped doing the

[30:43] infrastructure projects um we got had a significant drop and it was also there

[30:50] were um really tough times in the economy and our current administrator

[30:54] basically stopped our all borrowing for all street projects um which hurt us

[30:59] even more. >> I was just going to say this road aids

[31:04] are based on new construction and new, you know, expenses. The more we spend,

[31:09] the more we get back. So, if we cut back on it, eventually our

[31:16] transportation need a cut back.

[31:21] » Okay. So, I thought it was this was a good

[31:25] opportunity because I I know we're sounding a little gloomy, a good

[31:30] opportunity to kind of talk about why are we in why are some of the reasons

[31:34] we're in this position. One of the largest reasons is the net new

[31:37] construction, right? Net new construction means that's all you can

[31:41] raise the levy. Even if the community believes it's something that you truly

[31:45] need and you want and you are willing to do, you can only raise that levy by net

[31:50] new construction. So, I found this was a a good article. We can attach this to

[31:54] the the minutes, too, but I gave everybody a copy, but it it just laid

[31:59] out a really good example, and we tried to put it up there in graphical form. If

[32:03] your expenditure was $100 in 2020 and your expense was $100 with your net new

[32:10] construction, you've you've paid your bills. You've provided that service in

[32:15] 2025. Now, because you can only increase by net new construction, your revenue is

[32:19] 124, but your expenses are 150. And you're losing that gap every year. You

[32:25] you have to borrow, you have to raise revenue, you have to do a referendum.

[32:30] There's you have to somehow work through that gap every year. Um, this article

[32:36] was produced by the counties and you can see on the second page there is not a

[32:40] county in the state of Wisconsin that's not currently experiencing this gap with

[32:44] Bayfield County being having the most extreme gap.

[32:54] So just the gap between cost to provide governmentmandated services and the

[32:58] ability to raise the needed revenue continues to grow.

[33:07] But one of the things that we know in Weston is that we are being responsible.

[33:12] We are being collaborative. We are being innovative and responsive towards this.

[33:17] And one of the reasons that we know that is because of the Wisconsin Policy

[33:21] Forum. And we did include some slides tonight with the the website to

[33:25] Wisconsin policy forum because we we'll show you how to kind of work with the

[33:30] the research tool that they have on there.

[33:34] But if you if you go to the website, which I'll pull it up, looks like this.

[33:39] When you when you go, you can click on research

[33:43] and you're going to get to all of their municipal

[33:48] data set tools. They have lots of other data that they do for school districts

[33:52] and you can contract with them if you need research done. So there's lots of

[33:56] resources on this website but within the municipal tool in the PowerPoint um I

[34:03] did include two slides we can work through the others but

[34:07] here's for the example general government uh expenditure the comparison

[34:12] village of Weston is at the bottom and I did our other area municipalities is

[34:18] this comparison and then also the property tax per uh

[34:24] per capita the levy per capita and we're third to

[34:28] the bottom. The dot on this chart represents the

[34:33] representation of residential to commercial

[34:37] and tax base. But if my

[34:43] on the website here are you can do up to 10 municipalities.

[34:48] I have the city of Marshall, the city of Scoffield, Wisconsin Rapids, city of

[34:51] Wasa, village of Chrono, Rib Mountain, Rothchild, and US. So you can see the

[34:56] lowest in general government. It's been sitting for a while, so

[35:02] hopefully this works. No, we went back to their general,

[35:07] but up here, you you pick the municipalities. Right now

[35:13] it's it's it's picking the largest municipalities in the state, but we can

[35:19] pick our

[35:23] whichever municipalities we would like to use as a comparison.

[35:28] And you can run all of these scenarios along the side. Street maintenance,

[35:34] fire, net police, basic spending, property tax, shared revenue. So,

[35:43] we thought it was a good opportunity to show the board and certainly if you

[35:47] wanted to take the opportunity to go and see how other municipalities how Weston

[35:52] compares to other municipalities, you certainly can.

[35:57] » I apologize, it's going to take me too long to select the eight again to get

[36:00] them up, but they're the two in the in the packet are the general government

[36:05] and the tax levy. and they do have definitions of what they're including

[36:11] and all of that spending on the site. [clears throat]

[36:15] So we we do have a lot good going and we can do it right. Yes,

[36:23] we can. But tools in our toolbox kind of going forward is it a reduction in levy

[36:29] funded services and what is that? Is it an increase to fees? We've done some

[36:35] innovative service delivery and partnerships.

[36:39] Are there others that folks are thinking about? Referendum, taking on more debt,

[36:45] um completing more task in house instead of contracting out, investing in our

[36:50] infrastructure, not letting it go beyond repair. That has a lot to do with the

[36:54] GTA conversation or general transportation aids. Or is it moving

[36:58] more street maintenance to borrowing? Right. So

[37:05] where I wanted to dovetail this in tonight is the strategic plan and we've

[37:11] we've talked about strategic plan before and does this strategic plan still

[37:17] meet where we're at. This are just an excerpt on our vision, our what, our

[37:22] mission, our why and our guiding principles and then the four goals that

[37:27] came out of that strategic plan. But if we're talking about these things about

[37:31] going forward and making any of these changes, you know, do they fit within

[37:36] our vision for what we want to see happen in the village going forward in

[37:40] the future?

[37:48] » I guess I just one of the things and I don't want to get this wrong, so just

[37:53] please correct me if I'm going off the wrong road here. Um but one of our

[37:57] issues also is our shared revenue. Um when we became a village and we split

[38:06] the state gave us a very gold fair revenue number.

[38:11] » They did correct it. Do you remember that?

[38:15] » Two years ago they gave us a bump. >> Okay.

[38:17] » They gave everybody a bump though even the ones that were getting more than

[38:21] they should have. So because there was a minimum that everyone got. um we did get

[38:26] quite a bit of bump and then moving forward the legislation has that we're

[38:30] getting a percentage of sales tax. Um last year I think we got $35,000

[38:36] additional shared revenue >> because I know that was an issue and and

[38:40] then our population kept growing and then they froze it

[38:45] » and so we didn't get anything. And when you compare us to say other areas that

[38:51] have the same population and and all the other things, our shared revenue is

[38:56] still far below some of the other municipalities per

[39:01] capita. >> In addition to that, I think it was 20

[39:05] 20 2010 2011 29 2009, our tax rate stayed at $510 for three years in a row.

[39:15] Um the village is very proud of that, but that was at the time where

[39:19] municipalities were allowed to increase it net new construction or 2% trying to

[39:24] keep up with inflation and stuff. And at the time our village president and our

[39:29] village administrator kept their costs, they they they were making us cut back

[39:34] then. So in the time when government was actually good and we were growing, we

[39:38] were already doing these switching the funds around, moving money

[39:43] around to keep our tax rate low. So we've been doing this for quite a few

[39:49] years um keeping the rate low for our taxpayers.

[39:53] » Then you went into this formula where it's based on new growth.

[39:57] » Yeah. And then they switched it. They had net new construction or zero now.

[40:02] So, municipalities aren't allowed to keep up with CPI.

[40:06] » I guess Barb, to your question, you can, one of the things you can look at is

[40:10] shared revenue per capita. Um, you can sort it by county. We're the fourth

[40:15] lowest in Marathon County for shared revenue per capita. So, I mean, yeah, I

[40:20] mean, there's bunch of those things that some of it we're just not going to

[40:25] change, right? We're not going to change legislation overnight that,

[40:28] » but I mean, I know different ones will make the comment. Well, one of the

[40:31] reasons we're operating at a much lower scale than other municipalities in our

[40:40] good example, city of Marshfield, they have a zoo, right? That zoo was formed

[40:44] years ago when they were able to have a more flexibility with their levy. They

[40:50] had quite a bit of shared revenue. They were a booming city back then and they

[40:54] were able to create those nicities that some cities have that there's no way the

[41:00] village of Weston could ever afford. >> I did shared revenue quick. I don't

[41:04] think I I got everybody on the bottom. If there's another municipality we want

[41:08] to throw up there, just let me know. But >> if you click on Weston, then it just

[41:13] highlights it. >> Yep.

[41:17] » There you go. So Rib Mountain

[41:23] is below us. >> This is because Rib Mountain became a a

[41:27] village. This is the first year that the they're included in the in the data.

[41:33] » But City of Los is the one that you're missing.

[41:37] » Thank you.

[41:49] So second lowest just with those comparables of our neighbors and shared

[41:53] revenue. But we did get a bump and we are we're happy that it will increase

[41:58] now. There wasn't any opportunity for increase before

[42:05] now that I have these pulled up. would be um fire and EMS,

[42:12] Weston net police,

[42:17] Weston,

[42:21] basic spending,

[42:27] net operating expending,

[42:33] [clears throat] taxes is in the packet. Shared revenue, municipal debt,

[42:44] fund balance,

[42:48] and individual income.

[42:59] » The individual income, is that like the net of what a person makes in the

[43:03] village? Yes. It's >> it's the average income per tax return.

[43:08] » Yes. >> Yeah.

[43:10] » Of the residents, not the employee. >> Yeah. Of all residents of all 15,89.

[43:26] » So hopefully you find this tool useful. We thought it would just be a good idea

[43:32] to share it and then share it to talk about, you know, we we do have some good

[43:38] things going on, but also how does that reflect in our budget conversation of

[43:41] moving forward when we are looking at these larger issues.

[43:51] » Okay. Then we're going to go a little bit into special revenue funds.

[43:54] Sorry, going back to going forward uh your list of tools. I was wondering

[44:00] what the uh village bond rating. >> Are we at double A2?

[44:09] » And we'll have to be we haven't been we will be rated again here soon.

[44:15] » That's an AML from that. They just published a reoccurring of

[44:22] report movies did with us. We're a double A3 with no outlook. Um it was

[44:29] issued August 2026.

[44:35] » Can you translate that for what that means?

[44:38] » Good.

[44:42] » I um double A2 and double A1 are above us. Um, to get to a double A1 you have

[44:49] to be a larger community. I believe we were at a double A2 once, but I believe

[44:55] we dropped and that was a while ago. While ago, maybe 10 12 years ago.

[45:03] I don't remember. Um, what does that mean? That means that

[45:08] Moody's has looked through our stats. They take our financial statements and

[45:13] they take lots of numbers off that, plug it in their formula and they determine

[45:19] our rating. Any other help from those that know?

[45:28] » You can only >> you can only be as good as the county

[45:31] that you're in as well. So your rating can't be above Marathon County which I

[45:35] believe Marathon County is double A2 if I recall but

[45:42] » the ability to also for borrowing what you get is your rate will be based on

[45:48] your bond rate >> and we work with Ellers and they've

[45:52] given us every indication that we'll be very competitive.

[46:00] Okay. Go ahead. Can

[46:04] » I just ask why this was not an original packet that we sent out? This is a lot

[46:07] of information and I want to share it tonight. We want to talk through it. We

[46:13] don't want to just throw information out there now that it's up there. People can

[46:18] look at the video and they can hear our voice talking and explaining what you're

[46:22] seeing. Cuz a lot of it, if you're going to go and interpret it, all of a sudden

[46:27] you have something in your head. Then you come to meeting and we're telling

[46:30] you something opposite. What are you going to remember? What you have in your

[46:33] head or what how we explained it. Now I believe there should be two. There's the

[46:39] answer should be both. Right. You have your opinion but there's also stuff we

[46:43] have to share that explains it. We used to not even put it in the

[46:49] packet. I used it. Case in point two months two weeks ago our agenda had uh

[46:55] um salaries for the board. That's the only question I got. The only phone call

[47:00] I got was that the only thing people talked about at the public meeting was

[47:03] that we're here to give ourselves a raise. That wasn't it at all. We have an

[47:07] election coming up. We've got to solidify what the what the salaries are

[47:10] going to be for the elected officials. And there there was when I saw that on

[47:14] there and I knew it was going to be on there. I knew for a fact that this board

[47:17] was not going to give itself a raise. I I knew it. But because it was out there

[47:21] with nothing else other than that one agenda item, everyone brought up how

[47:26] we're trying to give ourselves a raise. It's not true. It wasn't true and it's

[47:30] too bad. And you know, nobody said nothing afterwards,

[47:33] » but that's exactly what she's talking about right there.

[47:36] » And and I I can get that and I can understand it. But when I'm trying to

[47:39] prep for a meeting, right, I'm trying to be educated and learn as much as I can.

[47:45] So, I spend a day, which is a full day, prepping for a meeting. And now I have

[47:49] all of this information that is brand new to me. So, how am I supposed to as a

[47:55] board member offer a good opinion when this is the

[47:59] first time I'm seeing some of this information in this format?

[48:03] » So, can you see where I would be frustrated? But

[48:06] » that's also why we have more workshops happening, too. This can all get brought

[48:10] up at the next meeting or the next meeting. And I think we have what, three

[48:13] left? Two for sure. Three.

[48:15] » Three. Three. >> We have three left.

[48:17] » I'd rather talk through it. Have explain [clears throat] what I'm trying to show

[48:22] you and then come back with questions instead of a ton of questions and oh

[48:26] that's in my presentation. I mean it can go both ways. I

[48:32] understand. >> It's a it's a it's kind of a horse of

[48:36] piece. If this would have been out a couple week a couple days ago and the

[48:39] seven of us would have had all kinds of questions and finance and HR and we

[48:43] would have peppered staff with that, what's the point of having a meeting

[48:47] when now we've got at least the gist of it and now we can kind of decipher it.

[48:51] Still make some phone calls or some emails, get some more answers.

[48:55] » I'm not I'm not saying either one is right. I I get it that it's it's hard to

[48:59] get all that at one time, but um go ahead Barb. Well, I was just going to

[49:03] say and this with Jessica's explanation going through um like you said, we have

[49:10] other budget meetings that if we still now we have this and her explanations

[49:16] that we have questions tonight or at the next meeting to go through it. Like I

[49:22] said, yes, it's nice to have it in front of us, but at the same time, I can

[49:27] understand what Jessa is saying that she wants to give the presentation

[49:32] and then we can ask questions. >> I think she still can, but having seen

[49:36] this ahead of time would have been nice because then I'm I feel like I can't ask

[49:39] you anything because I need to sit and look at this now. I don't I can't just

[49:42] be like what? like I hear what you're saying and I I'm taking that in as I'm

[49:45] writing, but I just feel like this would have been stuff that would have been

[49:49] helpful prior, especially some of the notes on the income on the wages because

[49:53] that right off the bat I was like, "This isn't making sense." And so

[49:57] » says, "I should have given it to you at the meeting so I could walk through it

[50:00] though and then you wouldn't have those questions."

[50:03] » I mean, it it's it can go both ways. I'm willing to change.

[50:08] » I'm fine with that. We'll just we will put it in the packet and it'll

[50:15] be a little bit lessformational. We'll put this stuff. It's a really

[50:19] quick turnaround by the way with our um duties finance. We we just I know we're

[50:25] here for budget and year end, but we also have day-to-day activities that

[50:30] we're we're working through. We are short we are not short staff, but we

[50:34] don't have a ton of people in the department. Song and I are it. So um we

[50:39] will make sure that next budget meeting >> we put it in the back

[50:47] » so everyone has adequate time. >> Yeah.

[50:50] » I can also see it both ways too. Like I totally get Jessica because I've seen

[50:53] media articles and stuff that mischaracterized what's out there. But I

[50:57] guess the way I look at it as is every decision that we make is looking at a

[51:02] $10 million budget. And I guess in my world that's a really big number. I

[51:06] don't have that sitting at the bank. So, it's not something I get to consider

[51:08] every day. And so, you know, if we had to make a decision tonight that was

[51:12] consequential to $10 million, I don't know that I would feel prepared to make

[51:16] a good decision. Um, looking at the dollar amounts and the things that we

[51:20] do, you know, we're constantly having to approve and make decisions on. I just

[51:24] for me, I like to be more thoughtful about things that if I can be and it

[51:28] just for me, I struggle with that. If we have to sit tonight about a bulk of this

[51:32] money, I don't know that comfortable. We don't We have five five workshops, you

[51:37] know, >> and at times years go by, it it almost

[51:40] seems tedious, but exactly for this moment right here,

[51:44] » we've got more time. So, yeah, >> one of the um slides we kind of breezed

[51:49] through was slide eight. Um we talked about the 10 $9.6 million budget from

[51:55] 2026. Um I think we need to go back and talk about that one a little bit. Um

[52:00] that slide breaks out personnel. I'll label it non-discretionary, but

[52:05] basically expenses we can't get rid of unless we're going to start chopping

[52:08] down street lights. We can't get rid of $336,000

[52:12] expense. Um those that's all the gas and electricity it takes for the village

[52:18] general fund does not include any water, sewer, storm, um gas and electricity.

[52:23] This is only the village. Um we have salt and sanding, street maintenance

[52:28] which has always been on the top of a ton of surveys. that's very important to

[52:33] the village. Uh fuel and oil, we had 102 that will be going up for 2027.

[52:40] Assessor required audits required. Um those are required fees, $1.3 million.

[52:48] And then we go down, we look at our public safety, Mountain Bay, and South

[52:52] Area Fire Safer. Um over $5 million. So when we're talking about a $10 million

[52:58] budget, we can look at the $2.5 million. That's us. That's us people doing the

[53:03] actual service to the community. And then we have the other expenditures,

[53:08] $763,000. Um, those are up for grants. When I

[53:13] talked about that $763,000, but when you're talking about a $9.6

[53:19] million budget, what you're talking about is the 2.5 and the 763.

[53:25] The rest you don't have a ton of say on. Um, some of you do have a say on

[53:29] Mountain Bay and some have a say on Safer, but the rest of the board does

[53:34] not have a say. Those are representative, those are joint ventures

[53:37] with other communities. So, um, I guess this is a great spreadsheet to bring up

[53:42] and really help you focus on what does this board really have a say on? And

[53:49] it's the 2.5 and the 763.

[53:55] » Do you have something to add? Yeah, I mean you guys were talking about the

[53:58] meetings and some of that. I mean, when I've first started here, we used to take

[54:02] was it a full day and kind of go through the budget and have workshops at either

[54:07] offsite or in one of our, you know, meeting rooms. And I know the feedback

[54:11] there at that time was that's a lot of information for me to get in one day.

[54:16] And you know, so we started breaking these out over the years and trying to

[54:19] do a little bit, you know, every every other week just to try to allow people

[54:24] to get some information, come back with questions, ask another question, come

[54:28] back. So I guess maybe that's a big question. I I think we asked it earlier

[54:31] this year and maybe until you go through the process, you don't actually realize

[54:35] what what your preferred method is. Um, I think of it as, you know, when I was

[54:40] in in school, you you you go to class, the professor gives a lecture, you write

[54:44] down some notes, and then maybe you have to go to office hours later, you ask,

[54:47] you know, at the next, you know, class period, hey, you mentioned this last

[54:51] week. What what did that mean? I guess that's the purpose. We're not asking for

[54:55] this to be approved tonight. Just trying to get it out there so that there's

[55:00] information, we can digest it and come back. Um, I think that's that's

[55:05] important. you know, no, nobody's saying, "Hey, this needs to be adopted

[55:07] tomorrow." Um, so I think that maybe it's helpful. Um, I guess, yeah, you

[55:16] know, just trying to figure out how do we best work together on these items.

[55:20] You know, we are a team. Um, you know, I guess we as staff aren't saying, "Hey,

[55:24] we have no idea how to balance this budget." Um, you know, if you wanted us

[55:28] to bring you just a budget in November, we could probably say, "Hey, it's it's

[55:31] bud it's balanced." Um, and we've had boards in the past that kind of seemed,

[55:36] you know, I'm talking, you know, 10 plus years ago. Granted, we were losing money

[55:40] and they were just happy that we balanced the budget. Um, but you know,

[55:45] we take the direction that we're given and we try to make it work. So,

[55:49] » what is our final date? Just so everyone understands when this has to be

[55:52] completed. >> End of October.

[55:54] » End of October. Okay. To have enough time to publish and all that.

[55:57] » Yeah. Because you have to do a public hearing notice for November.

[55:59] » Okay. Right. So, end of October. Okay,

[56:04] » special revenue. >> Special revenue

[56:06] » number 20 2.

[56:11] » There we go. >> So, this is just the preliminary 2027

[56:15] budget for our special revenue funds. So, special revenue funds are funds that

[56:19] are used to account for revenue from specific sources that are legally

[56:23] restricted to expenditures for specific purposes. Uh, the first one we're going

[56:28] to look at is the refuge recycling. this fund. We were we heard a lot about

[56:33] our large fund balance. Um at the end of 20

[56:38] 25 our fund balance was 156,000 and we were very fortunate to have that very um

[56:46] nice cushion because this year fuel killed us. With our new contract with

[56:53] harders, anything over $4 a gallon for diesel, we're paying extra. Um, it's a

[57:00] lot. Um, I know I've been keeping you updated in my monthly briefers. Um, we

[57:07] kind of had a projection for our 2027 budget and then I looked at the fuel for

[57:15] last month and I'm not so sure that our estimates good. We may have to go back

[57:20] to the drawing board. But anyway, looking at 2026, we're looking at a

[57:25] reduction of 62,000 in our fund balance. Um, most of that is the fuel search

[57:31] charge. Um, with that, I'm not quite comfortable with keeping our fee at

[57:37] $25.50.

[57:41] Um, might look at bumping it up to 210. I think we'll be bringing this one back.

[57:46] I want to see what August did and see if that um $62,000 decrease in fund balance

[57:53] is a good number or not. So, we'll be bringing this one back. Um in this fund,

[57:58] it includes leaf pickup, bulk item drop off, electronic recycling, refuge

[58:02] recycling services, i.e. harders, and the yard waist site. Um we do administer

[58:08] this for the town. That's something that we might want to discuss

[58:13] in the fund balance with some of town funds to write, but going forward with

[58:18] not a lot of funds left, do we want to talk to the town and say, "Okay, we need

[58:23] to be both paying more." So, that's just a item topic for discussion um at a

[58:30] later time. Any comments on the refuge recycling

[58:35] budget? Only piece I will add is because we we've talked about this as

[58:39] administrators, everybody's contract has a fuel escalator. So it isn't that is

[58:44] not unique to us. >> It would have been in the other contract

[58:47] that we're that we had the tour. >> We did have it in the other contract.

[58:50] The difference with the other contract is they didn't do it monthly. And so if

[58:54] it if at the end of the year we had a fuel escalator, we had it for a whole

[58:59] year. Now we do it monthly. We've just had a very odd year when it comes to

[59:05] fuel. >> The one month alone, and I'm looking

[59:08] August, it might be topping at an additional $10,000. That's a lot of

[59:13] money in one month additional not budgeted for. Um, at the time that the

[59:17] budget was created, we had no anticipation that fuel would be going up

[59:22] like this. >> So, if the by miracle would drop, you're

[59:28] still going to be the 10,000. No, >> it's $4. It's4 $41

[59:34] when the escalator goes in. >> But say it's it's $410,

[59:39] » we're going to pay that extra. >> But then if it drops down to $3,

[59:45] » we don't get a rebate. >> We don't get a rebate.

[59:47] » So by doing it in by the year

[59:53] » by doing it with the other contract, we're able to budget. Right.

[59:57] » This way we're we are not able to budget because we don't know because it's the

[1:00:01] month that the fuel went up. So >> I mean I guess in in a way though we

[1:00:07] almost are going to have to budget for it for the entire contract because I was

[1:00:10] trying to remember the last time diesel was under $4 a gallon. So I Googled

[1:00:13] quick. So take this for what it's worth. Google AI but it says statewide average

[1:00:17] for diesel in Wisconsin has been under $4 since early 2024. Um, so I mean if

[1:00:24] that's accurate, I mean, and I can't remember the last time I've seen it

[1:00:27] under $4. It's been well north of five and in the five range. So I mean, in

[1:00:31] essence, we almost do need to budget for it being that I mean, I guess the way I

[1:00:35] look at it because I don't see the world changing overnight where diesel fuel is

[1:00:39] going to go down. I mean, it's almost >> we have budgeted in the budget that you

[1:00:44] see it is budgeted. Um, is it enough? We'll have to

[1:00:48] » So the 20550 is what we would adjust for 27.

[1:00:52] » Yes. [clears throat] >> So 27 let's say remains we we go you

[1:00:56] know whatever $5 $2 just to clean that up a little bit and but then after that

[1:01:00] you know it's a seven-year contract that this will be ne uh year two right in 27.

[1:01:06] So now now it goes down to $3 and we don't have that access in there. We

[1:01:09] could actually take it back down a few >> we can change it once a year.

[1:01:13] » That was our thinking when we went to 20550.

[1:01:15] » Yes. We had a bunch of numbers that we were considering and we didn't want to

[1:01:19] go too high. But now it kind of caught us with the diesel searchcharge. Okay,

[1:01:25] good. As long as we can move that around in the next six, five years.

[1:01:29] » Okay. >> Once a year.

[1:01:30] » Once a year, right? I know it's once a year,

[1:01:32] » but you'll get a good feeling on what happened in 25, you know, or 26, I

[1:01:36] should say. So, >> okay.

[1:01:39] » So, at this point, users will be using some of the fund

[1:01:44] balance. So, we have >> we're looking at using $62,000 this

[1:01:49] year.

[1:01:53] » Jamie, >> just a

[1:01:58] kind of a different kind of question. Um, do you know offhand or can you

[1:02:03] remind us or tell me where to look? What what do our um residents like or dislike

[1:02:12] about our refu and recycling program? Are there

[1:02:17] things aspects of it that they really appreciate or things that we could do

[1:02:21] without um from that survey? Do we have any information on that?

[1:02:26] » I think Valerie is still here. Yes. And um know the one thing that I often hear

[1:02:31] is the events that we have because they are free of cost. So, I think a lot of

[1:02:36] people save and wait until those free of cost events occur.

[1:02:42] » And a lot of those are covered, right? >> Yes.

[1:02:44] » And some of those are covered. >> Some aren't, but some are.

[1:02:48] » But like the electronic recycling doesn't come out of here. That that

[1:02:51] hauler has an agreement and can take that that waste for free.

[1:02:56] » Yeah. The paper shred day event we do get bills for. It's [clears throat] just

[1:03:01] a a straight fee though. not based on tonnage and that's why we've opened that

[1:03:06] one up to the general public because we thought we may as well get our money's

[1:03:09] worth out of that one. >> And one of the advantages of moving to

[1:03:13] the harder agreement when we went to that agreement was that they don't

[1:03:17] charge us for bulk item. We were charged tonnage for bulk item drop off twice a

[1:03:22] year and they just included that as part of the cost. So at that time that was a

[1:03:26] savings of about $55,000 if I'm remembering correctly. And I I expected

[1:03:32] more um hardship, more calls on dropping them off out of Ringle and I haven't

[1:03:36] received not one call, >> not one.

[1:03:39] » The only the only comment I ever hear and I really I have I have I have not

[1:03:45] taken hardly the calls that I used to take from residents. But the only thing

[1:03:50] I would say that people ask for, I really don't hear people saying that

[1:03:54] we're offering too much. Usually it's the recycling. I get calls from people

[1:03:59] probably once a month saying, "Well, why can't we do this once a week?" Because

[1:04:02] it's confusing to try and remember what weeks are recycling weeks. That's

[1:04:07] realistically the only complaint I get. >> If I have any confusion, I just go

[1:04:13] outside and look at my neighbors and I I see two of them out there and I could

[1:04:17] Oh, I get my other one out there. >> That messes up and then the rest of the

[1:04:22] neighbors like, "Crap, it's recycling week." And then they all put their

[1:04:25] recycling out and then they're all off >> or it's a Thursday to Friday on a

[1:04:28] holiday. >> Yeah.

[1:04:30] » Yeah. Everybody's out a day ahead. >> Where is the um

[1:04:34] recycling grant in here? I guess maybe um Am I missing it?

[1:04:38] » Intergovernmental revenue. >> Okay.

[1:04:40] » The top line. >> Okay. I thought it was more than that.

[1:04:44] That's why I guess >> Okay.

[1:04:46] » Initially there was a little bit of route issues I think just getting that

[1:04:49] down. But you see the same thing with the buses. every school year. They're

[1:04:52] just getting their routes down and you'll see some, you know, sometimes

[1:04:56] they double back an hour later, but other than that, not an issue at all.

[1:05:00] » We did price weekly recycling with this agreement, too. And it [clears throat]

[1:05:03] just was, it wasn't cost effective. It was cost prohibitive. So, we did we did

[1:05:07] price that. >> Is the electronics recycling event a one

[1:05:12] standard cost or is it done by how much we take in?

[1:05:14] » There's no cost >> for the electronics recycling at all.

[1:05:18] all >> gets to use it, gets to do, you know,

[1:05:21] part it out or do whatever with. So, >> okay. So, do we open that up to anybody,

[1:05:24] too? I know a number of non Western residents that were bringing stuff into

[1:05:28] that as well. >> Yeah.

[1:05:30] » No, we we talked about opening that up and we did and we sent the invites to

[1:05:33] our neighbors too, but I think a lot of our neighbors have have also are doing

[1:05:37] events. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, there is no cost

[1:05:40] to the village at all for this event. Um, the only time a resident or or

[1:05:46] whoever dropping off would be fee charged is if you're dropping off

[1:05:49] something that's not acceptable through the Wisconsin ecycle program but

[1:05:57] » and that's a lot of times that's chemicals

[1:05:59] » and then the chemicals they can go Marathon County right because Marathon

[1:06:02] County has certain time >> as far as the east cycle stuff a lot of

[1:06:06] it be like for free or something >> but a lot of things that they wouldn't

[1:06:11] take at the free event like your home they would take

[1:06:15] » were either free free or for very low.

[1:06:20] » Okay. Any more questions? >> No. Okay.

[1:06:28] » This is the aquatic center budget. Um we do our best guesstimate this year. We're

[1:06:33] looking at

[1:06:37] » we're hoping to more or less break even or have an increase in the fund balance

[1:06:42] of 8,000. So it's not a ton. We're hoping the expenditures come in as we

[1:06:47] estimated, but it's going to be close. Break even would be good good also.

[1:06:53] » Right, Lisa? >> Um the 40,000 40,000 40,000 comes from

[1:06:56] room tax and 40,000 from tax. So $80,000 a year and that's regularly we do that.

[1:07:03] We don't change it. Um and we have the same amount of people attending the pool

[1:07:08] or has that gone down? >> It es and flows.

[1:07:12] » Yeah. So um this year we did approximately well I think I did I send

[1:07:17] it to everybody. >> I sent it to everybody.

[1:07:19] » Yeah. So everybody got it with the revenues and the attendance we were

[1:07:23] 25,000 some this year. Last year we're like 28,000. Um but the increased prices

[1:07:28] for this year actually made our revenues higher than last year even with more

[1:07:33] people attending last year than this year because we did increase season

[1:07:37] passes. We increased daily pass prices. Um, and our revenues actually ended up

[1:07:42] higher than we had projected up for the year.

[1:07:45] » Are you are you working up like a longer term plan for the pool for possible

[1:07:50] expenses? And >> and [clears throat] that's that's one of

[1:07:53] the things that we had talked about during one of these meetings prior is do

[1:07:57] we want to do a facility assessment because we haven't had one done in 10

[1:08:00] years. And that'll give you a breakdown of

[1:08:03] costs that you could expect like the um report that was been done back in 2016.

[1:08:10] Is that an expense that you want to incur or is that do you want something

[1:08:15] else done? As far as >> how much was the last one?

[1:08:18] uh 15 I think it was around 15,000

[1:08:23] » and it's done by >> done by water technology

[1:08:28] » not not a seller of product right >> it's not like by kubichek

[1:08:32] » you know pool systems you know it's not >> yeah they don't build they they are

[1:08:36] design firm >> okay all right I have one question

[1:08:39] that's part yeah part two of people so do we have a number back or any feedback

[1:08:44] on this newest expense that we're expecting for this fix that has to Have

[1:08:47] we heard back on what that's looking to cost us? And then is that included in

[1:08:51] these estimates? >> No, that so that would be in capital.

[1:08:55] » Okay. >> It would be a borrowed project. We put a

[1:08:58] number in for capital borrowing. Um but since they have not completed the leak

[1:09:02] detection yet, we don't have a cost estimate for the repair.

[1:09:06] » What number did we throw in for capital? >> We threw in 100 100,000.

[1:09:11] » I think we had projected originally like a 85,000

[1:09:15] expenditure for next year. Anyways, um but I asked that we up it just because

[1:09:20] we just spent 102,000 on leak repair. So why would I think another one would be

[1:09:25] less just just to be cautious? Um so what

[1:09:30] you're seeing for the increase in the pool budget is literally we we're

[1:09:34] projecting like a 4% increase for wages for staff.

[1:09:38] So, and that's just a an estimate, >> but those are those are

[1:09:43] » Y >> those are Y costs, but we reimbured them

[1:09:46] for all wage expenses, and we haven't seen our August billing yet from the Y.

[1:09:51] So, um we don't even know what our current expenses are. We did an estimate

[1:09:56] for 26, but we're not sure where that's going to land.

[1:10:00] » They just bill us once a summer. Do they bill us? once a month, but usually

[1:10:04] they're usually two to three weeks into the month following month before we see

[1:10:10] it because once you close out payroll could include one week from

[1:10:15] July or you know so we expect it usually around the third week of se September.

[1:10:21] So we're projecting it to be lower just

[1:10:24] because the July one was actually a had more pay periods in it than it typically

[1:10:28] does. Stephanie shaking her head because she

[1:10:31] knows exactly how that system works. [laughter]

[1:10:36] » One additional piece to that is the school district piece and just that

[1:10:40] they'll be doing the community survey. It does talk about municipal

[1:10:44] partnerships if we wanted to depending on how that survey comes back explore

[1:10:48] municipal partnerships and what that might mean.

[1:10:54] » What do you what do you mean by that? Would we would

[1:10:58] could could mean many things. >> If we wanted to explore a partnership,

[1:11:04] do we want to have one pool? What does that pool look like? And we all

[1:11:10] contribute to that >> with Rothschild.

[1:11:12] » No, with Everest also and possibly with Rothschild and possibly with Scoffield.

[1:11:18] » So Scoffield and Rothschild decide to, you know, term their pool. Um, Everest

[1:11:25] has made it known that they've got to do some work or build another a new pool.

[1:11:30] So, do we want to do that together somehow some way?

[1:11:34] I I it's worth a conversation. >> Yeah.

[1:11:37] » Yep.

[1:11:40] » Has there been any more discussion in uh potentially increasing the money we

[1:11:46] transfer from room tax to to the pool? We've been at 40,000

[1:11:51] forever. >> Forever.

[1:11:57] Besides me saying it in our meeting this morning, probably not.

[1:12:01] » I mean, because we know there's a a balance in room taxes right now,

[1:12:05] » but that's not that's not that's >> Yes, I understand.

[1:12:09] » That's the 70, not the 30. >> Yeah. So, um, but there's a balance in

[1:12:13] there for expenditures for like room tax, um, for events, etc. that can apply

[1:12:19] for. But, uh, it was more of a joking thing this morning like, can we increase

[1:12:23] for the aquatic center just because we know we're running out of a line where,

[1:12:28] you know, yeah, we're projecting a loss, but we have a fund balance that covers

[1:12:32] that loss. >> So, room tax once it comes in is divided

[1:12:36] 7030. The 30 gets to stay with the municipality and this 40 comes from that

[1:12:41] 30. >> What's that?

[1:12:43] » Nothing comes out of the 70. >> The 70 is [clears throat] goes is broke

[1:12:47] apart to the city. goes that goes to CBA, right?

[1:12:49] » Yes. >> But then it's at 42 and a half% and

[1:12:52] another percentage and another so it the 70 gets broke down.

[1:12:56] » But our question is could we apply as municipality for the pool or tourism

[1:13:01] dollars to come back to the pool? >> Well, another option is so right now

[1:13:06] approximately 130 140 goes to the capital fund. Um that basically reduces

[1:13:12] our borrowing. If we wanted to decrease the amount going to the capital fund, we

[1:13:18] could increase the 40 and just whether we want 50 there. But at this point, we

[1:13:23] have not had a year where we've needed to do that. So that's really why we've

[1:13:28] we have a fund balance. We're able to maintain it. It goes up and down once in

[1:13:33] a while, but um with the fee increase this year, it really helped to maintain

[1:13:39] the fund balance. >> We went up $2 on a daily pass from five.

[1:13:45] » Yeah, we went from five to seven on our season passes went up like 20.

[1:13:53] » Not a lot of talk on that, right? >> No, no, there's lots of singles now.

[1:13:58] » Yeah. Okay. But I mean, we're ultimately able to

[1:14:01] maintain our fund balance because we're borrowing money to cover the big

[1:14:05] expenses to fix things when we're doing our capital budget. Correct.

[1:14:08] » You wouldn't be paying for a $100,000 item with the [snorts] aquatic center,

[1:14:14] though. Kind of like we don't pay for road work out of our general fund. We we

[1:14:18] borrow for items that will last more than five years. That's usually the rule

[1:14:24] of thumb when you go to borrowing. You want an item that will last preferably

[1:14:30] 10, but the village has done some street work when we know that it's not going to

[1:14:36] last more than 5 years. We've still borrowed for

[1:14:43] » it was longer than that. [clears throat]

[1:14:46] » Any more questions on the aquatic center?

[1:14:55] That's tiff number one.

[1:14:59] » Um, this TIFF is closing. We have our estimates for 2026.

[1:15:05] Um, we'll have to see how those end up yet. I'm not quite sure. Um, I think we

[1:15:10] have all our expenditures in, but we're going to be waiting for the

[1:15:15] final audit, which we need to start sending over paperwork now to the

[1:15:20] auditors so they can complete that. Um, they will make the final determination.

[1:15:24] Once the final audit costs get accounted for within this, we'll be able to

[1:15:29] determine the amount that gets allocated to the other taxing districts.

[1:15:38] questions. >> There's there's a large um other

[1:15:42] financing uses transfers just >> that is going to go to debt service. We

[1:15:47] have a $10 million debt that we're paying off

[1:15:51] » that was used for the tiff I assume. Okay.

[1:15:54] » Yeah, it was a CDA lease revenue bond. Um the it actually we call it the debt.

[1:16:01] It's actually not due till 2031, but we did call it so we can close it down.

[1:16:08] Normally you can you can see where we normally record it's a CD lease uh lease

[1:16:13] expense to CDA um we normally recorded the

[1:16:19] revenue coming in and is increment and then we transfer it to our CDA fund as a

[1:16:27] lease expense and this time because the lease expense

[1:16:33] the amount of payoff was more than the lease expense fence. So that's I just

[1:16:38] showed it that way.

[1:16:43] » Any questions on TIFF?

[1:16:50] » Go ahead. >> CDA tiff number one.

[1:16:53] » This is the fund that we use to pay our CDA debt out of. Um right now we have

[1:17:00] it's closer to 1.95

[1:17:04] in there. Um, we are acrewing interest each month that we're holding on to

[1:17:08] those funds. They will be taking the funds out of our account and then we'll

[1:17:12] be transferring the balance over to associated trusts to pay off our debt.

[1:17:22] » Nothing exciting. We got two less funds to talk about next year.

[1:17:28] » Um, this is TIFF district number two. This is our Schoolfield Avenue project.

[1:17:32] um we have a large deficit and we're anticipating

[1:17:37] um at the end of 2027 we'd still have around $470,000 deficit.

[1:17:45] We're estimating an increment of $270,000.

[1:17:49] Um the very sad part is if we had the increment that we had in 2025, we'd be

[1:17:55] able to pay off our debt. Unfortunately, the state slashed the value in that

[1:18:00] tiff. Um and we are not able to do that for a

[1:18:06] couple years yet. >> Questions

[1:18:11] that devaluation was end of 24 or beginning of 25 when the state when did

[1:18:16] they do that? >> Um beginning of 2025 is when our um

[1:18:21] reassessment went through. Okay. Right.

[1:18:27] room tax.

[1:18:31] » Um, this is the room tax revenue from our local motel. We cut a check to the

[1:18:37] CVB and I I have a little note there. In 2025, of the $461,000

[1:18:42] that was paid to CVB, 197,000 went to the Weston account.

[1:18:48] Gives you an idea of how much funds that our tourism commission has when they're

[1:18:53] giving out grants.

[1:18:58] And that's now including a ARB. I mean the all the different avenues, all the

[1:19:04] different not just the hotels. Now we're getting right 50,000 from online stuff.

[1:19:09] Yeah. >> Y

[1:19:11] » I was just going to ask how often do we recontract or renegotiate how much goes

[1:19:15] over there? >> We just did last year and then we went

[1:19:19] into a two-year agreement. So we are we're through next year 2027 when we

[1:19:25] would talk again. >> Okay. Thank you.

[1:19:28] » This is it's definitely a conversation we need to have. So those funds need to

[1:19:32] be used for tourism. The village doesn't have a lot of tourism activities right

[1:19:36] now. Our fund balance in the Weston only account is growing. Um I don't know if

[1:19:40] we have to have discussion about that. Um but if we don't do a ton by next year

[1:19:45] at this time, we really need to have a good discussion. We should not be

[1:19:50] carrying over those funds from year to year.

[1:19:52] » We used to, but we haven't been in the last couple years.

[1:19:54] » What did we used to do? >> Because we used to keep it. It used to

[1:19:57] just roll right over. But about two or three years ago, we did a heavy donation

[1:20:01] with DC Green. Yep. >> Community,

[1:20:03] » the um Green Heck Turner building uh to the tune of about 400 450,000.

[1:20:09] » It was quite a bit. >> Yeah. And that's done now. Is that

[1:20:12] » Yeah. Okay. >> But now we have these funds building

[1:20:15] again. The tourism commission. Um, we don't get a ton of grant requests. I

[1:20:21] mean, we do, but I don't know. It's something that we'll

[1:20:25] have to probably address. >> I think a lot of people come to use our

[1:20:28] pool and stay at hotels. So, we could uh a little little humor, but I mean, we

[1:20:33] could request some for that. So, >> well, maybe

[1:20:37] » or parks or events. Yeah. >> Looking at getting together with DC.

[1:20:42] Maybe that's a use for it too without going into

[1:20:48] » right. >> Okay.

[1:20:54] » And what is the balance right now? >> The Weston only was it 250?

[1:21:00] » I think it's 230 up there. >> That's only through quarter two.

[1:21:05] » Oh jeez. Okay.

[1:21:10] » So, civic social and park trust. >> The park trust is our park impact fees

[1:21:18] parkland dedication. We used to call them parkland dedication. They're more,

[1:21:21] you know, correctly termed park impact. I'll get that wording updated. Um, it

[1:21:27] shows the revenues coming in and the expenditures going out. We have an

[1:21:33] estimated $15,000 we use this year. Uh we have an estimated $15,000 next year

[1:21:39] and they're a lot of them are the park improvements

[1:21:43] that we're able to use those funds for.

[1:21:50] Uh the other one is the civic and social that includes our farmers market also

[1:21:55] includes our scholarship fund. Um in 2027 we're proposing to pay off a $500

[1:22:01] scholarship again. We haven't done that for many years. Um the balance in CD has

[1:22:07] grown and I think we need to start doing that again because that's the purpose of

[1:22:11] those funds to give out scholarships for the school district. Um so we started

[1:22:15] that up again. >> Well, there for a while we weren't

[1:22:18] earning no interest to pay anything. >> No, but um the last renewal, so we just

[1:22:23] renewed it. We're getting 4.01 or something like that. So that'll be a

[1:22:28] good chunk of interest again for 27. Any questions

[1:22:35] » with that scholarship at the community foundation?

[1:22:38] » No, through DC Everest. We'll work with administration there and then when they

[1:22:43] give out their >> Where's the money being held? Sorry.

[1:22:46] Where's >> Oh, in the bank in a city.

[1:22:51] » Can I give you history? >> That was the

[1:22:57] centennial. when they has a centennial for West town

[1:23:02] Weston, there was a group and they did they had

[1:23:08] money that they put into actually at one point in time was in

[1:23:14] some saving trust. It was actually bonds, but pretty soon the bonds were

[1:23:19] costing more. They were charging more to so we took

[1:23:24] that out of there. It was there. We took them out of there and put them into a

[1:23:30] CD, but there wasn't a real lot left anymore by that point. But that's how

[1:23:35] the scholarship starts. It's actually Weston Centennial Homeland scholarship.

[1:23:42] » Nice. Yep. >> I'll just chime in again as a reminder

[1:23:47] for the farmers market, the miscellaneous revenue, a lot of it is

[1:23:50] the tokens that we sell and then in the farmers market expense, a lot of it is

[1:23:55] the tokens that we disperse. So, we we take in the revenue from the credit card

[1:23:59] sales and then we give it to the vendors as they turn in their tokens. The

[1:24:03] farmers market also includes the toilet rental and this year included the

[1:24:07] improvements at Kennedy Park with the electricity and stuff. Um,

[1:24:13] and I think that's about it

[1:24:19] » questions. Any more?

[1:24:25] » We just had this one last slide just about the future. One of the things we

[1:24:29] had done in the past, my understanding is that it it was done before the this

[1:24:33] building was um put into place is we had worked with Ellers on sort of a

[1:24:37] long-term financial plan. that's still up on our website. Is is that's

[1:24:42] something maybe it's not exactly that something that we would want to do going

[1:24:47] forward and maybe that dubtales with strategic plan but just another way to

[1:24:51] look at the services that we provide and and do some in-depth analysis of of each

[1:24:58] and then if time for there's any additional questions.

[1:25:09] I think I would like to know on this is the finance end of it because Jessica

[1:25:15] said something that I guess um I have a little bit concern that we borrow for

[1:25:21] stuff that will last at least five years. I hope we don't borrow for

[1:25:26] something um that's gets paid back in 10 years

[1:25:31] last five years. We've so when we give our outline to Greg what we're

[1:25:38] borrowing, he kind of puts the stuff in the correct bucket. So we he controls he

[1:25:45] has a an estimate of the payoff. Like when we get the debt documents back from

[1:25:52] Greg, he kind of has it structured um to really fit the items that we're buying.

[1:25:58] » Because I remember back when we had sweets

[1:26:03] street sweeper and we had to we're looking at borrowing for a new one and

[1:26:08] the old one wasn't paid off yet.

[1:26:13] » Um, a lot of that what I'm talking about is our street maintenance. We've been

[1:26:16] shifting we've been shifting to >> Right. I know that's why

[1:26:20] » so if we accidentally pay for gypsing out of how long does it We got

[1:26:26] stuff like that. So there is certain things that we don't know.

[1:26:31] But I mean, >> we paid for these microphones, which we

[1:26:34] want >> doing some of the borrowing for the

[1:26:37] maintenance or the whatever. I can see, you know,

[1:26:41] roads, you put them down and they're supposed to last 20 25 years. But if

[1:26:46] you're talking something that you're got a 20-year borrowing note, I don't know

[1:26:49] what they are, but and you're going to be redoing it in 10, you're still paying

[1:26:55] it off. Um, I have a concern.

[1:26:59] » Right. So when Greg does his presentation, you'll see how he chunks

[1:27:05] certain of the assets in different groups and then he has a selected payoff

[1:27:10] for that. Um I think we're looking October 5th. That would be during our

[1:27:15] budget. >> It would it would be during that budget

[1:27:18] workshop and I October 5th is just the night that that Greg was already booked

[1:27:22] for the 21st. And I can remember even like we bought computers and the

[1:27:26] computers didn't last that long. And so I'm kind of I don't want to be borrowing

[1:27:32] for stuff that for long term they're short term.

[1:27:37] » Okay. >> All right. Moving on.

[1:27:41] » Yep. >> New business.

[1:27:42] » Yep. >> Number six. discussion, interaction or

[1:27:46] possible action on modification to FS FLSA status for the engineer technician

[1:27:51] position from exempt to non-exempt. [snorts] Mr. Pleasure

[1:27:58] need more explanation. >> I don't think so.

[1:28:03] » I is it by law but more because he isn't really a tax exe or

[1:28:11] » Yeah, I I guess supervising

[1:28:15] him. >> Yeah. I mean, before this meeting

[1:28:17] started at 6, I saw his car still out in the parking lot. Um, he started this

[1:28:22] summer for us and, uh, his main project right now is the Concord A project,

[1:28:29] which first started the week of August 17th. So, is it last week, two weeks

[1:28:34] ago, when we're doing payroll, all a sudden I realized uh, he was set up

[1:28:38] incorrectly, but then I realized he actually wasn't set up incorrectly. I uh

[1:28:43] had uh incorrectly labeled the position when uh it was created. So I guess it's

[1:28:48] really just a a cleanup and I guess that's the purpose of then asking for

[1:28:52] the uh back date so that you know going back to essentially the week of the last

[1:28:57] full pay period he would be compensated for the time he was actually out on

[1:29:01] site. >> So how much are we looking at? I think

[1:29:04] it was maybe 16 or probably about 20 extra hours. Um

[1:29:10] » about how much?

[1:29:18] » Let's see. 20 time.

[1:29:28] » I'm guessing it's it's probably less than $1,000

[1:29:31] and actual wages. There's probably some WRS on there and some other things, but

[1:29:38] uh I mean realistically if we had a consulting engineer out there, we'd be

[1:29:41] paying them over $100 an hour. We're not nearly paying that. So, I guess it's

[1:29:48] just a a goodwill gesture to the employee that uh they they're not, you

[1:29:52] know, essentially first week on the job we're saying, "Hey, I need you to donate

[1:29:58] now uh you know, bunch of hours that you gave us." So,

[1:30:01] » no, I was just wondering how much it was.

[1:30:04] » But Isaac, >> no. Um, no. Remes. Uh, Isaac is salary

[1:30:10] as the engineer, but we have uh an engineering tech as our on-site

[1:30:15] inspector. >> Well, they're paying fair numbers.

[1:30:21] » Okay. So, the finance should do it first.

[1:30:24] » Finance first. >> Recommend it.

[1:30:25] » Yeah. I have a question. So, we're he was hired in spring, but we're only

[1:30:29] going back to August. That that's when this project started.

[1:30:33] » Okay. >> You didn't have overtime.

[1:30:34] » You didn't have over time until this one started.

[1:30:36] » Yeah. >> And we anticipate in this position will

[1:30:40] have a lot of overtime each year, more in the summer than the winter,

[1:30:43] » correct? Yeah. >> You have any I mean this isn't possible

[1:30:46] probably yesterday, but like ballpark how many hours you think you envision

[1:30:49] this person working overtime? Uh I mean if you average say an extra 10

[1:30:55] weeks or 10 hours per week through for

[1:31:02] [clears throat] what's May through October

[1:31:08] » six months so 24 weeks

[1:31:12] » his hourly wages >> approximately so say about 250 hours

[1:31:17] give or take >> probably

[1:31:19] » and then at an hourly rate of

[1:31:23] I say it's about 30 >> so 30 $35 versus if we did not have that

[1:31:28] position it' be $100 an hour >> at least.

[1:31:30] » It's a huge savings. >> Probably about $120 an hour. Yeah.

[1:31:33] » Huge. >> Plus someone working for the villager.

[1:31:36] » Correct. >> And then you know that in the off season

[1:31:40] he'll help with design and other other items. So I mean this is a position that

[1:31:45] we had previously but uh [clears throat] didn't do the on-site inspection part of

[1:31:50] it. And it's capital project funds. It's not

[1:31:55] general fund. It's yeah the cost that we'd be incurring out

[1:32:00] there. >> Thank you.

[1:32:04] » I make thought his hand up. Did you? >> He's done.

[1:32:07] » Oh, he just asked who the name was. >> So, do you want to do finance first? You

[1:32:11] said >> yes first.

[1:32:12] » Okay. So on behalf of the financial question, even though he didn't incur

[1:32:16] overtime, >> do we have to or should we put his I

[1:32:20] mean, if we're changing his status and he should have been labeled that way, I

[1:32:24] realize he doesn't incur overtime, but is it a legality thing? I just want to

[1:32:28] make sure that we're I don't know the HR rules, but I just want to make sure.

[1:32:35] I I guess I I think it's okay because he didn't

[1:32:40] as an employee he didn't he wouldn't be able to say, "Hey, I was improperly

[1:32:45] paid." I don't think it changes anything as far as a 40-hour week. It's just

[1:32:51] unless we want to go back all the way. I I don't I I guess to to clean it up, I

[1:32:55] guess we could go back to his start date. I mean, if we're saying we

[1:32:59] improperly classified him upon his hire, >> again, I I'm I'm not a lawyer, but I

[1:33:05] would think you should go back to when he was hired and didn't have any

[1:33:09] overtime. I mean, then we're only paying him appropriately from the time he did

[1:33:14] incur it. But >> if you stated we improperly classified

[1:33:17] him from the start, we probably should put it back to the start. That again,

[1:33:22] I'm I'm not >> I agree. No, this makes sense. There's

[1:33:24] no fiscal impact. It go back to the day you started. Yeah,

[1:33:27] » I mean >> that's the right thing to do.

[1:33:29] » Yeah. >> Yeah.

[1:33:31] » Then that would change that number. >> It would change the date but potentially

[1:33:36] not any overtime if he didn't have >> any over time.

[1:33:41] » So change started. >> Okay.

[1:33:44] » His start date was July 6th. So >> or I would think we should go back to

[1:33:49] the sixth. >> So on behalf of the finance and HR

[1:33:52] committee, is that your motion? >> That is my motion.

[1:33:54] » Okay. We have a motion by record. Is there a second?

[1:33:57] » Second. >> Second by Daniels. Any further

[1:34:00] discussion? None. All those in favor signify by

[1:34:03] saying I. >> I.

[1:34:04] » I. Opposed. >> Motion carries.

[1:34:07] » On the same motion going back to the start date of I believe June 6th.

[1:34:11] » July 6. >> July 6. Okay. Well, there'd be nothing

[1:34:14] to pay for that first month. Um >> I move for a motion

[1:34:18] » by Hushin. Second by Barb. >> Um any more on the question?

[1:34:24] » Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I.

[1:34:26] » Opposed. So carried. Number seven, discussion and or possible action on

[1:34:31] potential summer hours for 2027. Possibility of closing on Friday

[1:34:35] afternoons. This could be just something that we talk about a little bit tonight

[1:34:39] and then, you know, go through it with some more bullet points, whatever the

[1:34:43] next three meetings. But it's just thrown out there from the last meeting.

[1:34:47] Um, I did bring it up um because I think there was some retention talk, some

[1:34:51] different things. I kind of checked around. I know staff checked around on

[1:34:54] other municipalities as far as what their hours are. I know um um I think

[1:35:00] right now our public works is a 4 day 410, right? Work week.

[1:35:04] » Uh they were this week we go back to so the two holidays together, right?

[1:35:10] » But they still work their 40 out. >> Yeah, they still working 40. Well, we're

[1:35:13] not talking about anything not working 40 hours. So, um but that's it's just up

[1:35:17] for discussion. >> Yeah. No, I was just going to ask and

[1:35:19] because I know I asked you that last meeting about the how they work the four

[1:35:23] days. So, can you just explain to me again the public works?

[1:35:27] » Yeah. So, generally from Memorial Day to Labor Day, we have four 10 hour days

[1:35:32] instead of five eight hour days. Um for equipment starting, stopping um breaks

[1:35:39] that generally get more productivity out of that day.

[1:35:43] » Um >> they're doing their 40 hours just in

[1:35:45] four days, not five days. Now it's after Labor Day. So you're saying you go back

[1:35:48] to the five days? >> Yeah. Then kind of

[1:35:51] » at Labor Day then we go back to 58s. You know, you don't get the early sunrise or

[1:35:55] um you know, so you have less sunlight evening, too.

[1:35:58] » Yeah. >> And staff's happy with that. They like

[1:36:00] the they'd rather do the four days or >> you're never going to be 100% uh

[1:36:04] » right. I mean, some are >> over 100, but

[1:36:07] » some still enjoy having, you know, maybe Friday off um and would work 410s, but

[1:36:13] uh you know, I guess others, you know, it kind of gets tiring after a while. Um

[1:36:19] so, uh I we do occasionally like for leaf pickup, we'll sometimes last year

[1:36:25] we did it with our our mechanics where they uh came in an hour early and also

[1:36:30] um switched off. One worked Monday through Thursday, one worked Tuesday

[1:36:34] through Friday in 10-hour shifts. So that um when the equipment was done for

[1:36:38] the day, they were able to go through it, get it cleaned so that it was ready

[1:36:40] to go the next morning right away. Um our value added work of picking up

[1:36:44] leaves on the curb side was able to go, you know, as the operator used it and we

[1:36:50] weren't uh stopping early or, you know, having to fuel up the machine, do things

[1:36:54] like that. So, >> and then snow pl snow events just throw

[1:36:58] it all out the window. Yeah, some events is

[1:37:01] » a good point. >> Yeah. No, but as part of that 40 hours

[1:37:06] in in four and a half is the fact that that is actually more economical for the

[1:37:12] street crew because they can continue to work not stop at 8 and come back. They

[1:37:18] can do the full 10-hour and it's not it's more efficient that way.

[1:37:24] » We generally are doing more with our big equipment. So, you know, even just

[1:37:28] greasing equipment, you know, pre-trip inspections, those those take time. So,

[1:37:32] if you can uh if eight guys are doing, you know, half an hour of pre-trip stuff

[1:37:37] in the morning, that's, you know, four hours of time that we save on that last

[1:37:41] day for not having that going on. So, >> but I meant I as I recall it was done

[1:37:46] because of it was more efficient than the other.

[1:37:52] » That's the street crew which will probably remain the same but we're

[1:37:55] talking about >> I just wanted to make sure we had a

[1:37:57] clear differentiation between the >> two or Mark I guess whoever wants to.

[1:38:00] Can you kind of go through the vision for this like how are people going to

[1:38:03] fit their 40 hours in because I think even with public comments tonight

[1:38:06] there's some misconception that people are going to be working like 36 hours

[1:38:09] and getting paid for 40. So, I guess kind of can you share the vision of what

[1:38:13] what you expect the hours to be, how people are going to fit those hours in

[1:38:17] if they're not working Friday afternoons.

[1:38:19] » Similar to public works, we would expand that day. So, the examples that I gave

[1:38:23] like Rothschild, Coronair, and the city of Scoffield, they do a 7:00 a.m. to

[1:38:28] 4:30 and then on Friday, they do a 7 to 11. Rip Mountain slightly different.

[1:38:33] They do 7:30 to 5 and then on Friday, they do 8:30 to 1. I think one of the

[1:38:38] reasons they do it slightly different on Friday is because they have their market

[1:38:41] on Friday at the municipal center at the parking lot.

[1:38:45] » So city of Wasa does Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 7:30 to 4:30 and then Thursday

[1:38:52] they do that later night and Friday then until 12:30. So if if we moved this

[1:38:57] direction, we would have to have the conversation if we're if we're going to

[1:39:01] go start at 7:00 or 7:30 and then maybe it's not closing at noon but 1:00 on

[1:39:08] Friday. >> So currently the hours are what?

[1:39:12] » 8 to 4:30 >> with a half hour lunch.

[1:39:14] » Correct. >> Would a half an hour lunch still be

[1:39:16] expected? I

[1:39:18] » think you have to. >> Yeah.

[1:39:20] » Yeah. >> Well, I do too, but I mean I just want

[1:39:22] to make sure. Okay. You're asking is it going to have to be increased is what

[1:39:25] you're saying at work. >> No, no. Hour be it.

[1:39:27] » Okay. >> I know. At one point in time, we had

[1:39:29] tried this and it didn't work out real well.

[1:39:33] » What didn't work out well? >> Some didn't like coming in early,

[1:39:37] that early. I mean, you know, um they didn't like working that late. Um it was

[1:39:44] all kinds of different, you know, reasons. And then we had complaints that

[1:39:49] the office wasn't open on Friday afternoon.

[1:39:53] Um, but I mean I guess >> I think it was just Mark had offered it

[1:39:59] up as something different to >> offer. But I mean, like I said, that was

[1:40:04] that was the issue we ran into, which you know,

[1:40:09] » but not to say that the new, you know, there's new people in there that it

[1:40:14] wouldn't work. >> It had been tried before.

[1:40:18] » What department would this effect? Everybody else.

[1:40:20] » Everybody else. We'd have to figure out utility on Friday because somebody's got

[1:40:23] to be on call. >> It wouldn't be for us.

[1:40:24] » It would change utilities at all >> or parks.

[1:40:27] » Or parks. >> Okay.

[1:40:29] » Likely. No. Have we ever had a later like city of

[1:40:34] Wasa has on Tuesdays and they work till 600 whether this is summer or year

[1:40:38] round? This is probably a side note, but do we ever have one day or have we ever

[1:40:43] tried one day where it's later? We just don't have staff traffic. I mean public

[1:40:47] traffic coming in. >> We haven't tried a a later that I'm

[1:40:51] aware of where we've stayed open past the the 4:30.

[1:40:55] » Well, like tonight we were all here. I mean, I think the city of Was is their

[1:41:01] meeting night. That's when they meet is on Tuesdays. So, their staff is there

[1:41:06] and I mean, most Mondays all department heads are here. I mean,

[1:41:12] it's almost 8:00 at night and we're still here. So, I mean,

[1:41:17] » I'm just wondering if that would be of benefit to the public for us to discuss

[1:41:21] if we're going to look at maybe hours changing during the summer because I'm

[1:41:25] assuming you were just mentioning summer, right?

[1:41:27] » That's what you were referring to. not year round.

[1:41:30] Is that right? >> I'm all over the board. I'm all over.

[1:41:33] » My staff is here until 5, sometimes six o'clock during the summer anyway. Um,

[1:41:38] most evenings. So, I mean, the building inspectors and myself stay

[1:41:43] until we get what we get done. So, and we're all salary, so

[1:41:50] we're going to do that anyway. >> We would always if someone needed an

[1:41:53] appointment at that at an off hour, we would always accommodate an appointment.

[1:41:57] accommodate >> the thing that we're not like we're not

[1:41:59] taking utility payments right now, right? Like that that's the

[1:42:03] those things aren't aren't occurring at that after hours time frame, but I think

[1:42:07] we'd always take an appointment. >> All utility payments can go to Inner

[1:42:10] City State Bank. They collect for us. >> Yeah. Or they can go to the Dropbox,

[1:42:14] which is 247. >> You know, I don't know what the

[1:42:16] expectation is or the sense of urgency for contractors or buildings, especially

[1:42:20] over the summer, but inspections to me have always been something that I think

[1:42:24] about. If I was in that field and I knew one day I couldn't get the service that

[1:42:28] I thought I could get. That's 20% of the work week I can't get.

[1:42:32] » So, you know, would we stagger the inspectors? Would we not? I don't know.

[1:42:36] » They take it by inspection appointments. So, you really can't walk in here and

[1:42:41] expect to have an inspector here at all times just because I mean, we always say

[1:42:47] this, the buildings don't come to us. They go out to the, you know, they're

[1:42:51] out in the public inspecting. So, you know, we ask, make an appointment, then

[1:42:56] you're going to get some. >> Yeah. But, but, you know, prior

[1:42:58] administrations, um, I know that we had, you know, a work day that we didn't work

[1:43:03] out. >> Well, Al used to not work Fridays.

[1:43:06] [clears throat] I mean, he worked, >> but after Al, you know, with Daniel, you

[1:43:10] know, I know there was a a work day that was catchup day and you didn't do any of

[1:43:14] that. And I I I really struggled with that. I talked to him often about that

[1:43:19] and felt that that wasn't right. if they could have taken an appointment there

[1:43:22] and if they were taking appointments on that day, even on an off day where they

[1:43:25] were only supposed to be inside. >> Well, we always did if somebody called

[1:43:28] us. >> That's fine. I didn't know that that was

[1:43:30] happening. Okay. >> And they they've actually gone sometimes

[1:43:33] in the evening. Um >> I know that. Yep. I know.

[1:43:36] » If somebody can't, they'll meet with them after work early. I mean, we are

[1:43:41] we're always accommodating that way. They just have to call.

[1:43:44] » Yep. >> Okay. So, is this something we want to

[1:43:47] push off? >> I guess I want to throw one other day

[1:43:49] out there. So, I guess let me be very clear like this comment has absolutely

[1:43:54] nothing to do with support or lack thereof for our staff. Our staff do

[1:43:58] great things. I frequently um share that with people in the community. So, this

[1:44:04] is from a completely fiscal objective question. I would like to I guess see if

[1:44:10] you guys could bring back some employee feedback on what is the most important

[1:44:13] to them because if we look at all of this holistically

[1:44:17] um with the increase in WRS increase in health and a potential 3% cola the

[1:44:23] village would be you know trying to find an additional $319,78510.

[1:44:29] Um there's already $15,000 budgeted for merit and market on top of that which I

[1:44:33] don't think should go away because I think our our high performers should

[1:44:36] have the ability to earn some extra But we're also talking about, you know,

[1:44:40] closing Friday afternoons. We're talking about additional holidays.

[1:44:44] I I don't think we can do everything. Um there's a ways to add value without

[1:44:48] adding dollars. You know, if we're going to cover the whole potential 10%

[1:44:51] increase in insurance, maybe we don't do a cola. I'd like to hear from the

[1:44:55] employees like what of all these things are the most important to them? Because

[1:44:59] even if we did have money for all this, so say we we did the 319,000, we did

[1:45:03] the, you know, additional holidays, we closed on Friday afternoons, then what's

[1:45:07] the bar for next year? Like what are we going to have to do next year to

[1:45:10] continue to increase that retention and engagement? Does that make sense? I

[1:45:15] think if you look at it from a holistic perspective, we're talking about

[1:45:17] recruitment, retention, all of those things. We're talking about a lot of

[1:45:21] different ways to do that, whether it be financial, whether it be, you know, um

[1:45:25] through closing the office on Friday afternoons, additional holidays. But I

[1:45:28] don't think we can do everything. Um, so I guess if if employees had to and in a

[1:45:34] perfect world, if they had to pick between all of these different things,

[1:45:37] what are the ones that are the most important to them?

[1:45:39] » Are you equating the change of hours to dollars?

[1:45:42] » I I think that there's a lot of ways to add value for staff retention and

[1:45:45] recruitment that doesn't require actual dollars.

[1:45:47] » That value would equate to >> potentially, but again, we can't we

[1:45:50] can't do everything. And again, if we did, you know, say we gave a few more

[1:45:54] holidays, we did the 3% colo, we covered the increase in WRS and health

[1:45:58] insurance. >> You keep on saying the holiday, the

[1:46:01] holidays would incur a cost. >> Everything you've said is going to point

[1:46:05] » except the change of hours. >> That's my point. If we do all of those

[1:46:09] things, >> what are we going to do next year? Like,

[1:46:12] what are we going to give next year to continue to try to recruit and retain?

[1:46:16] So, I guess I'd like to hear from staff what is the most important to them so

[1:46:19] that as we're sitting here making a decision about all of these different

[1:46:22] things, we're not taking them piece by piece. We're kind of taking them as a

[1:46:26] whole look at all of them and with the input of which of these things are the

[1:46:30] most important to staff. >> Was it last year we did that survey

[1:46:33] staff the employee survey? >> Last year we did the employee survey and

[1:46:37] right now we have a survey for um staff recognition and appreciation

[1:46:42] » internal though just amongst ourselves. Okay. Jim, I have a question. Of the 37

[1:46:47] full-time staff, I'd like to know how many would be able to take advantage of

[1:46:51] the half day Friday or one o'clock Friday, like sitting here utility, Sean,

[1:46:56] they're not going to get to do it. Of how many? What's the percentage that

[1:46:59] could happen? >> No park, no utility. Um, road crews

[1:47:02] already on it. >> Parks. Parks. I mean, I think we can I

[1:47:06] think we can figure it out, but with only four of us in the department. Yeah,

[1:47:09] » technically I'm a director so I would probably be completely different

[1:47:12] schedule than the three that are in there. So we still need coverage on

[1:47:17] Fridays. >> So because of park rentals, etc. I mean

[1:47:21] we work every weekend all summer. So you know just how do we do that with

[1:47:26] seasonals and then have four tens Monday through Thursday and then

[1:47:31] two other different ones Tuesday through Friday. You know, we just we'd have to

[1:47:35] work out the logistics just to make it work. ballpark number that this would

[1:47:39] affect. How many employees? >> I don't really want a ballpark. I'm

[1:47:43] sorry. I I want an actual number of how many staff, sorry. Of who would actually

[1:47:46] get to take advantage of this? >> I can wait till next meeting. I just

[1:47:50] want to >> I was like I I mean there's 13 including

[1:47:53] you and public works.

[1:47:58] » No, I have to take out I have to take out Isaac and you

[1:48:02] » Jennifer made the comment like her is here until 5:00. like would she still be

[1:48:06] here till five o'clock because her staff can't afford to take off Fridays? I

[1:48:10] guess I want everyone to really think about is this for, you know, the 10

[1:48:13] office staff that want to leave early on Friday or would 30 employees get to take

[1:48:18] off early on a Friday and it would be a staff morale boost or is this

[1:48:21] » it'd probably be like less than 10. >> Yeah.

[1:48:24] » Staff that would take off. >> Again, our largest department is public

[1:48:27] works, right? Sure. You're you're nine or 10, right? So, you'd take that off

[1:48:32] the top right away. 14 say 19

[1:48:37] » 20 that is public works streets >> streets utilities

[1:48:41] » already doing it >> that yeah

[1:48:43] » not utilities but >> yeah that either are doing it or kind of

[1:48:48] you know our utility guys are here five days a week

[1:48:51] » um >> and is that good right is there is it

[1:48:53] fine that some people are going to work five days a week and some people are

[1:48:55] going to be leaving early on Fridays and like what's the the dynamic there is

[1:49:00] everyone good with everyone having different schedules Some people already

[1:49:03] work 410s. Great. Works for them because they got to take advantage of the

[1:49:05] daylight, whatever. So, if does that work in the in the office? Like, is

[1:49:10] there >> It's It's going to vary really because I

[1:49:13] mean like Reigns, he's there's still going to be jobs going on on Fridays.

[1:49:16] So, he's going to have to be here. So, he's somebody in office that would still

[1:49:20] have to be here on Fridays. >> Sure.

[1:49:22] » All day. You know >> who's that going [snorts] to be?

[1:49:25] » Was that >> Who's going to do that?

[1:49:27] » Well, we're going to rotate. >> If if it would be Rams, he's going to be

[1:49:29] out on site, right? >> Sure. So the office would still be

[1:49:32] closed. >> Okay.

[1:49:34] » But we would if if there were like parks is going to they wouldn't necessarily be

[1:49:38] here. They're >> Yeah.

[1:49:40] » Yeah. Same with same with inspections. You know, if they have inspection

[1:49:44] scheduled for Friday afternoon, they probably wouldn't take scheduled

[1:49:47] inspections. They wanted to be off on Friday. So

[1:49:50] » So let's let's get an exact number to come back [clears throat]

[1:49:54] » by department. >> By department. Sure.

[1:49:57] » That was too far. And I want to come in on what Brent was saying um

[1:50:03] and add to to that the fact of presenting the hours that you're looking

[1:50:10] at if we did that Friday afternoons off to find out which ones like I said which

[1:50:17] ones the staff would prefer because I mean

[1:50:23] and I I would hope you wouldn't be having two two different some coming in

[1:50:28] at 7 and some coming in at whatever. I mean, is it the uniform?

[1:50:36] » Well, no. A stagger would be good. 7 >> 7 and 8:00 and or 7 and 8:30 and so the

[1:50:42] office is open from 7 o'clock to 5:30 or 7 to 6. That'd be great.

[1:50:46] » As long as they got their eight hours in, I guess. Yeah.

[1:50:49] » That's that's not even a question whether they get their hours in. It's

[1:50:52] what it's going to do to the residents. you know what what kind of a lack of

[1:50:55] service or lack of attention or lack of response. You can't come in, you can't

[1:50:59] use it. >> That's that's the biggest issue right

[1:51:01] there. >> That's what we ran into.

[1:51:04] » Okay. All right. So, go ahead. >> I was just gonna

[1:51:07] » and then you, Michael. Yep. >> I agree with what Trusty Olsson said.

[1:51:11] Also, I was I'm concerned about confu, you know, confusing the residents.

[1:51:16] » It's like good >> points

[1:51:19] conversation. >> Okay, Michael. I guess I'd have to look

[1:51:22] back when I again, you know, 15 years ago, we were open, I believe, 7 to 5,

[1:51:27] and we had some of our admin assistants staggered. You know, they'd work 7 to 4

[1:51:34] maybe or 7 to 3:30, however that math works out. And then one was, you know,

[1:51:38] they'd come in at 8. Um, >> just the clerks for front desk stuff.

[1:51:44] Yeah. >> But so, but at the same time, we we

[1:51:46] don't have that many clerks anymore. We have less staff to do that. Um, you

[1:51:52] know, I personally probably put in closer to 60 hours a week than I was

[1:51:56] here last night for several hours on a holiday. So, I mean, a lot of this stuff

[1:52:00] doesn't matter to me and to several of the other people that work here. Um, so

[1:52:05] I guess those are the things that as we hear these,

[1:52:10] I just want to let you know it's it's nothing personal. It's just we do care a

[1:52:15] lot as staff. We put a lot of time and effort into this place. And

[1:52:20] I guess we we're doing what we can to keep things going. Um I guess that was

[1:52:24] maybe the point of trying to go through the the worksheets, you know, the the

[1:52:29] the municipal data tool. We don't get as much money per capita. We don't spend as

[1:52:34] much per capita though either. And it's because we have dedicated staff members.

[1:52:39] So, you know, the these are good good ideas

[1:52:43] and we try to flex it as much as we can. Um you know, but

[1:52:48] Sometimes I don't know I guess we've tried a lot of things over history and

[1:52:54] sometimes I I just start seeing it repeat and we get new people on boards

[1:52:57] and committees and I guess maybe that's some of my frustrations start coming in

[1:53:01] is we used to do it that way but then it didn't work out. We found out traffic

[1:53:05] died down after 4:00 so there was no need to stay open till 5 or nobody came

[1:53:10] in at 7 a.m. Um >> oh

[1:53:15] excuse me. Well, I'm in the clerk's office and I get to work at 7:30 in the

[1:53:20] morning and I really don't take lunch very often, which I should and I stay

[1:53:26] here till 4:30 or after. Um, I myself would probably not leave because I have

[1:53:34] a lot to do right now and that's why I get here early and I rarely take lunch.

[1:53:40] So, leaving on a Friday, I would not I would just get behind more. So,

[1:53:47] and I agree with what Michael said. I work really hard for the residents. We

[1:53:52] do our best to um answer their questions, get to the phone, get up to

[1:53:58] the front. Um we care about them and that's why we work so hard because we do

[1:54:04] care. If we closed the office at noon, you

[1:54:08] were like it wasn't that it was close you could leave but close so you could

[1:54:12] have like office hours that you didn't have to deal with people interrupting

[1:54:15] you. Would that be helpful? >> And that would be fine. But you know I

[1:54:18] hear people out here saying well people wouldn't be able to come in and I want

[1:54:23] to serve the public. That's why I'm here. So if I'm here

[1:54:27] » you would do it. >> I would do it.

[1:54:28] » Okay. I should know if they're closed off hours.

[1:54:32] » That's why I do it. >> Friday Fridays aren't that busy anyway.

[1:54:37] Um with the staff down stairs on Friday. It was just a couple of us or two

[1:54:44] Fridays ago. >> It was easily handled, especially being

[1:54:49] short staff right now. We are down a part-timer and we're down a full-timer.

[1:54:53] So front staff is a little short right now and we're handling it just fine. And

[1:54:58] it es and flows too because like the last week of the month there's not a lot

[1:55:02] of utility payments that come in. So the mail is is not as heavy. The front desk

[1:55:08] is not as heavy. Even the phones are a little quieter. But then when the first

[1:55:13] comes and the second and the third week are pretty pretty strong with busyiness.

[1:55:18] So >> when we talk about having off on Friday

[1:55:20] afternoon, we all have PTO and most of us have more PTO than we know what to do

[1:55:24] with. And I think that's a really good rational. We don't need to close the

[1:55:28] office. We don't need to flex our hours. If people want off Friday, they need to

[1:55:32] just take off. And that way we can work together and work around everybody's

[1:55:36] schedule cuz I know child care a lot some places don't let you leave your kid

[1:55:41] more than 9 hours. Well, if we have to work for 9 hour day, that that's a

[1:55:45] little bit of a stretch, right? I need to leave. I need to pick somebody up.

[1:55:50] So, um, that's another thought. But I know our previous part-time or previous

[1:55:54] full-timer really struggled at a different municipality that had those

[1:55:59] longer days. So,

[1:56:04] » I just don't think this was offered as a penalty for staff. I think we were just

[1:56:09] discussing different ideas to >> offer staff. So, I don't want it to be

[1:56:14] looked at as negatively. I think it was just

[1:56:16] » gives us this a possibility to give staff more time off or allow them to use

[1:56:21] their 40 hours in a different fashion so that they get more family time. So I

[1:56:26] just want to set that up. We were just looking at ideas.

[1:56:28] » Yep. >> And that's why I want that feedback

[1:56:30] because from listening to you guys talk that here it does not sound like Friday

[1:56:32] afternoons is going to be very popular. >> Like can we just answer question? So

[1:56:35] that's what I'm saying. Like that's why I want to know the feedback because if

[1:56:39] we're making choices if it comes down to dollars or if it comes down to other

[1:56:42] things like yeah we give you Friday afternoons off but then you want it. So

[1:56:46] what good does that do? Okay. So we'll follow up with some more discussion a

[1:56:51] little bit more actuals and we'll put it back on our agenda. Okay. All good.

[1:56:58] » Uh let's see. Uh remarks. You want to go in? Yeah. You want to call remarks from

[1:57:05] your committee? >> Awesome. Yeah. For the finance and human

[1:57:08] resource committee. Any remarks? >> Daniel.

[1:57:14] » Good. Thank you. >> Yeah.

[1:57:16] » My only comment is I would if we do this next year or the year after, whatever

[1:57:20] year, start with this one. Let's start with this presentation first before we

[1:57:25] » put salaries and and increases on the agenda. Um I like the joint finance. I

[1:57:30] was a big proponent of doing it as sitting on the financial committee. Made

[1:57:34] sense for me to understand how we got here. Um but I would have I would like

[1:57:37] to start with this next time. This one made a lot of sense and really detailed

[1:57:40] all of our um expenditures and then feels like we can head into um

[1:57:46] the stuff that's gets a little more hairy.

[1:57:48] » Okay. >> Nothing for me. So do you want to move

[1:57:51] into motion to adjourn for the committee?

[1:57:53] » No, that's you. >> That's what I'm saying. Is that okay? So

[1:57:56] this would end the joint session of our meeting tonight. So the finance and HR

[1:58:01] committee looking for a motion to adjourn

[1:58:05] by Daniel. Is there a second? >> Second by Barb.

[1:58:09] » Yeah, I'm on your >> I know. I just remember that. It threw

[1:58:12] me off for a second. All right. Any discussion on the motion? All those in

[1:58:16] favor signify by saying I. >> I opposed.

[1:58:20] » Have a good night. >> Okay. Thank you. Um do we want to do a

[1:58:26] remarks from staff first trustees or >> you can just do them after? It's okay.

[1:58:31] » Yeah, that's fine. Okay. So, uh board trustees continue. Um motion to move

[1:58:35] into close session pursuant to Wisconsin stat 19.85 parent one parent chief

[1:58:39] conferring with legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering oral

[1:58:43] or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with respect to

[1:58:48] litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved. Counter Weston

[1:58:52] Everest Metro Police Department EMPD payout.

[1:58:56] » Move. >> Move by Hermling.

[1:58:58] » Second. >> Second by Zugami. Roll call vote.

[1:59:06] » Do I need to sign off because I'm on Zoom,

[1:59:10] » right? You have to vote to go into close session first, Trusty Claire,

[1:59:14] » and then you you I can put you in the waiting room or you can drop off,

[1:59:18] whichever you >> the board, can we keep her in, please?

[1:59:20] » No. >> No. Okay. Then we're done. We're I know

[1:59:22] we're staying consistent. Okay. All right. Did you hear that, Katrina?

[1:59:26] » Yep. I'm good with that. >> Go ahead. Are you through?

[1:59:32] » Yes. She has to do roll call. >> Yes.

[1:59:34] » Maloney. >> Yes.

[1:59:37] » Mac. >> Yes.

[1:59:39] » Um, >> yes.

[1:59:42] » Yes. >> Clark,

[1:59:46] » yes. >> We are now in full session.

[1:59:49] » Give me a couple moments to Go to meeting room.

[1:59:56] » Nice to see you. [laughter]

[2:00:21] Uh, go ahead. >> So, I'm going to make a motion that we

[2:00:23] take no action based on the conversation that we had in closed sessions.

[2:00:27] » So, motion by Olsen to take no action on uh the closed session uh conversation.

[2:00:32] » Second. >> Second byling. Uh, any more on the

[2:00:36] discussion hearing? None. All those in favor say I.

[2:00:38] » I. >> Opposed? So carried. And uh let's see.

[2:00:43] Uh anything from staff, anything from trustees? Any remarks?

[2:00:49] » Uh nothing from me. I'm glad to hear Katrina's doing better.

[2:00:53] » And a future items are coming. You want me to read all this? But we have three

[2:00:57] joint workshops coming up here. >> Uh we've got when is our September 21st

[2:01:02] is our board night, too, right? >> Yep. Okay.

[2:01:04] » Also at next Saturday. >> Oh, Saturday we have the farmers market

[2:01:07] on the 12th. >> Yep. 10 to 12. And then we have another

[2:01:10] one after that too. Uh here. >> Yeah. I don't know who all intends to

[2:01:14] attend um next Tuesday, but we might want to throw a possible quorum notice

[2:01:19] for next Tuesday as well. >> He's got that out there for the town

[2:01:22] meeting. >> The town meeting on next Tuesday. I I

[2:01:26] may choose to attend as a village trustee. So yeah, Pam, you hear?

[2:01:29] » If there's going to be a group of three or four of us there, do we have to do we

[2:01:32] have to public notice? >> I don't know if we have to notice it for

[2:01:35] town. If there's three or four of us show up at the another good

[2:01:43] » Yeah. I'm just a purely spectator. It's Tuesday night.

[2:01:46] » It's Tuesday night and it's at >> 6:30

[2:01:48] » 6:30. Yeah. >> Um Jen usually sends out they send her

[2:01:52] » Jen will send us something out Wednesday or Thursday to all of us.

[2:01:55] » It's right over here by our place in the courthouse.

[2:01:57] » They haven't changed. >> Nope. Not at all. Looking for a motion

[2:02:00] to adjurnn. >> Some moved.

[2:02:02] » Motion by Olsson, second by Zagami. All those in favor say I. I.

[2:02:06] » Opposed. Ajourned at 8:50 p.m. Thank you everybody.

Board of Trustees and Finance/HR Committee (Budget Workshop) - 9/8/2026

Transcript