Alex Goodwin's J486 Blog

WHITEWATER, Wis. — Oct. 24, 2017 — The 2018 budget was amended and will be brought back to the finance table for final drafting at the Jefferson County Board meeting on Tuesday night.

The countywide revenues have increased by $1.1 million.

Property owners will be pleased to know their property’s value has increased since the last budget analysis in Jefferson County. It has also seen a decrease in the mill rate.

The mill rate on a property is the amount of money a person pays per $1,000 of the assessed value of property. Though the mill rate had decreased since property value had increased, owners may not see the difference in their property taxes.

The mill rate is not the only increase to be seen in Jefferson County. Last year’s tax levy was $27,068,827, for the proposed 2018 budget the tax levy is $27,357,982. This is an increase of $289,155.

To determine the tax levy one must add the budget expenditures and subtract the estimated revenues and other financing services.

The rise in taxes can be contributed to the new highway shop built this year. County Board Chairperson Jim Schroeder said the county has had little debt to be repaid, until the shop was built.

Finance Committee Chair Richard Jones said it will take 20 years to pay the loan for the shop back.

“We don’t borrow money just to pay bills,” Jones said.

The tax levy increased in the human services department by $109,587. This department also has an increase in federal funding to help alleviate the costs of the growing opiate problem in the county.

Schroeder said there are 200 people undergoing treatment for an opiate addiction in Jefferson County.

Jefferson is one of many counties in the state joining the lawsuit again opioid drug manufacturers. According to Wisconsin Public Radio there is a projection that 60 to 70 out of the 72 Wisconsin counties will join the lawsuit.

Schroeder did not reveal much about the lawsuit. He said the legal team in Jefferson County was working on a strategy for the lawsuit.

There were two amendments to the proposed budget brought to the County Board Tuesday.

The first dealt with the Jefferson County Human Services Department (JCHSD) and the elimination of two full-time Community Outreach Worker positions, with a creation of two full-time Juvenile Justice Worker positions.

JCHSD received one of two grants in the state of Wisconsin called Youth Justice Innovation Grant for $250,000. Acceptation of this grant will allow JCHSD the enhancement of the family case management framework to address mental health.

It will also “utilize in several to support the project, including payment for contracted providers, purchasing of a risk assessment tool, training and new technology for eight Juvenile Justice Case Managers.”

The amendment results in $25,000 of the $250,000 going to the remainder of 2017, showing an increase in revenue and expenditures that cover the cost of salary and benefits. While the $225,000 will be used for the updates to JCHSD mentioned above.

Twenty votes of the 30-member County Board are required for the amendment to pass. The JCSHD amendment passed with 28 votes.

The second amendment proposed dealt with the Jefferson County Child Support Agency (CSA), The Child Support Director requested to eliminate two full-time Legal Assistant positions and create two full-time Enforcement Specialists I/II positions in June 2018.

The positions in the CSA are two-thirds federally funded through 2017 and 2018; this amendment would require an increase in Federal funding of $4,517 and an increase of tax-levy in the amount of $2,280 completion.

One department’s expenditures exceed its revenues by $182,738 is the fair park. Jefferson County’s annual fair is spending more money than available to it.

Schroeder said the park is used for one to three events every weekend, so the use is there, but it isn’t making money for the whole county.

He also said it has become more of a tradition than a place of revenue, this year was the 165^th fair for Jefferson County.

“It’s bringing a lot of money into the community,” Schroeder said.

Though the fair park department does not make much money for the county, it is a tradition to have the fair and host events on the grounds. Schroeder said it won’t break the county to keep it.

The County Board will vote to pass the 2018 budget at the next meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 14.

Two County Board members were absent from Tuesday’s meeting. The members absent were Peter Hartz (District 12) and Blane Poulson (District 22).

The Common Council meet on Tuesday, October 3 for what could have been an argumentative meeting, starting with protesters outside the municipal building and beginning the meeting with comments from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (UW-W) administration on parking meters.

The meeting started promptly at 6:30 p.m., led by Common Council President Patrick Singer.

Parking in the City of Whitewater has become a subject of controversy for the community, specifically around the UW-W campus. UW-W Chancellor Beverly Kopper, Vice Chancellor of Administrative Affairs Grace Crickett and Police Services Chief Matthew Kiederlen addressed the concerns of the council and community members.

“We want to provide information and update the council, address concerns and certainly as we’re partners together, we want to make sure we’re working together on this,” Kopper said.

In the Summer 2017, UW-W removed parking meters on city-owned Prince and Prairie Streets to permit parking only. This was done to make up for lost spaces due to new residence halls, said Kiederlen.

In the reasoning behind removing the meters, Kiederlen quoted the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) dated to June 2012 between the city and the university. It states the university has the right to regulate their parking, which included Prince and Prairie Street.

Crickett spoke on self-sustaining parking for the university. Their goal is to become self-sustaining and the process to accomplish this goal is to remove the parking meters. She said this model of self-sustainment will help “direct resources to student success, to student housing and to other infrastructure.

Ald. Stephanie Goettl (District 5) voiced her concerns for citizens outside of the campus and their inability to purchase a permit for those streets if they are not students.

“I contacted Parking Services, and I was told unequivocally that…I could not park with a permit if I was not a student on those streets, and…if I was a disabled member of the public but not a student, I could not park on that street,” Goettl said.

Kiederlen combatted Goettl’s statement by stating the parking limitations were only put into place for a capacity study of the university. This was done to stop the overselling of permits for the campus.

Crickett offered the city to take back full responsibility to those streets or to draft a new MOU and the university would be open to it.

A concerned citizen and retired employee of the university spoke about a crosswalk issue the university has.

“We are going to have another dead student,” Pam Zarinnia said.

The crosswalk on Main Street leading to the back of the Andersen Library contains a flashing crosswalk sign when the button is pressed. The light is not easily seen to drivers according to Zarinnia.

Zarinnia also said there was a disabled student killed by a driver that did not see him crossing, in the past. She warned if nothing was done about this crosswalk, another student would die on that crosswalk.

City Manager Budget Review

City Manager Cameron Clapper addressed the council with an update on the 2018 budget Tuesday night.

Clapper offered up the city’s budget for 2018 would be $9,174,836. This number is $29,876 less than the 2017 budget of $9,204,722. Though the budget is less for this coming year Clapper said there would a termination of the Trail fund.

This fund was created to build a trail in Whitewater, but the motion failed after first approval. The money hasn’t been used since and could bring $76,000 into the budget.

The main revenues to the city are from taxes and intergovernmental revenues.

Clapper noted most expenses in the city go towards public safety and administration. However, the position of human resources will move from a part-time position to a full-time position creating a slightly more expense driven administration.

The Financial Committee will be meeting every Thursday for three weeks to go over the numbers within the budget. Meetings are open to the public and the first meeting is October 12 at 5 p.m. in the Municipal Building’s Community Room. Future meetings will be posted on the City’s webpage.

Clapper is looking to the City of Whitewater’s future in this budget. He said he is looking at a way to create a long-term financial plan.

The council is expected to vote on the 2018 budget November 21.

Landmarks Commission and Ordinances

Protestors lined the front of Whitewater’s Municipal Building the Common Council meeting Tuesday night. Two ordinances were presented to the council for approval per the request of Ald. Chris Grady (District 3).

The first ordinance proposed, gave the right to the City of Whitewater to review proposed landmarks on city property before approval of a landmark status. This ordinance passed unanimously.

The second ordinance, amending Chapter 17.12.040, meant to allow the city to rescind any landmark without needing permission from the Landmark Commission was also brought to the council for approval.

“Is there a second?” Singer asked three times before declaring the second ordinance dead.

The concept of the ordinance, according to Grady, is if a natural disaster were to occur the city would need to pay to repair any damage to the landmarks.

“People have been fairly misinformed as to what the goal of this was,” Grady said. “The goal of this ordinance change was to treat city-owned landmarks the same as a private landmark.”

Questions were raised by Goettl of why the ordinance was written in such a way that the city could remove a landmark at their attention, but not for only natural disasters as Grady intended.

“I would ask the question, then, why is this ordinance saying that at any time we can do this, instead of a disaster-specific ordinance that would give us the right in the need to fully replace, should an event occur,” Gottel said. “At that point, I would assume there would be some precedence and our attorney would be able to help.”

The ordinance failed at the lack of a second to approve the motion.

Not all seven Council members were in attendance Tuesday. Carol McCormick was absent from the meeting.

The next Common Council meeting is November 7 at 6:30 p.m. For more information about the City of Whitewater’s Common Council visit the homepage.

I am a student of Journalism 486: Public Affairs.

This blog is all about my journalism class and what goes on in it, with a mix of what happens to be on my mind. I’m a senior at UW-Whitewater and plan to graduate this December. The next years of my life will be full of changes, but I’ll try to keep it interesting just for you.

Contact me with a comment on any post.