Common Council Meeting

UW-Whitewater Chancellor Beverly Kopper, Vice Chancellor of Administrative Affairs Grace Crickett, and Police Chief Matt Kiederlen attended the Whitewater Common Council meeting on October 3 to discuss the issue of parking spaces and parking meters on and around the campus.

In August, parking meters were removed from Prince and Prairie Streets.  This forces students and faculty to purchase a parking pass from the university.

The passes themselves also saw changes, with permits divided between the lots north of Starin Road and the lots to the south.

Ald. Stephanie Goettl (District 5) is concerned about the price of these new passes, saying there has been an “unreasonable rise in cost.”  According to Kiederlen, the permit price has increased by $20.  Daily visitor parking passes have become more expensive, going from $3 to $5.

Kiederlen also mentioned that during the weekend, students can park anywhere on campus after 5 p.m. for free.

A major factor in why the city is upset about the parking meter removal is the fact that UW-Whitewater made these changes without city approval.  Kiederlen brought up a June 2012 agreement between the city and university which stated that the university has the right to manage their own parking.

Reading from the agreement, Kiederlen stated, “The city will not be responsible for parking enforcement for university spaces.”  He then added that the university is in the right to remove the meters.

The agreement also stated that the university can charge students to park on Prairie and Prince streets if the university paid the city $40,000 each year.

Crickett stated that “Parking is an integral part of our infrastructure.”  She also mentioned that parking needs to be more self-sustaining so that, “we can direct resources to student success, housing, and infrastructure.”

Citizens of Whitewater also criticized the university’s decision.  Comments were made about the increasing number of students parking farther off campus, taking up spots formerly used by citizens.

Pam Zarinnia, a citizen of Whitewater, is furious with these changes.  “I am embarrassed to be part of this city because of what the university has done with parking.”

Ald. James Allen (At-Large) is also concerned about taxpayers paying twice for parking.  Once with the taxes they are already paying, and secondly if they are forced to buy and parking pass for a space they should already be entitled to.

City Budget

City Manager Cameron Clapper gave his budget presentation at the meeting.  Clapper started out by stating that the budget has decreased by $30,000.  The total budget now stands at $9.1 million.

Taxes and governmental revenues will account for about 87 percent of the total revenue.  For expenditures, administration and safety take command the largest portion of the budget.

A few changes were added to the proposed budget.  Clapper talked about a debt service levy, along with changes to wages and health insurance.  The plan is for wages to increase by 1.5 percent to help offset the rising cost of health insurance.

With the slight decrease in the budget, Clapper is looking toward the future to prevent further budget issues.  To make up some of the losses, Ald. Jimmy Schulgit (District 2) proposed ticketing drivers more frequently for not yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks.

Landmark Ordinance

After a crowd of protestors gathered outside, the six council members seemed geared up for a battle on the first few topics of the night.  The first ordinance related to the landmark issue passed with no opposition.  Ald. Carol McCormick (District 1) was the only council member absent from the vote.

The proposal requires the council to review possible landmarks that are on city property before they can be approved.

The second proposal proved to be more difficult to pass.  This proposal would give the city of Whitewater the power to remove the status of a landmark.

Ald. Chris Grady (District 3) tried to defend the proposal by saying that people have been misinformed about the idea behind the proposal.  “The goal of this ordinance change was to treat city-owned landmarks the same as private landmarks.”

Council President Patrick Singer received one motion to approve it, but after asking multiple times for a second, declared the proposal dead on the floor.