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March 14, 2007 Minutes of Town Board Work Meeting
Minutes of Town Board Work Meeting of March 14, 2007 The regular monthly Town Board Work meeting was held in the Town Hall after due notice had been posted. Chair John Pelletier called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. PRESENT: ALSO PRESENT: Town Chair, John Pelletier Clerk, Colleen Endisch Supervisor, Larry Malsch Treasurer, Shari Wisniewski Supervisor, Dolores Nowak Fire Chief, Gerald Edwards Supervisor, Wayne Polzin Police Chief, Andrew Mayer Supervisor, Bill Endisch Audience: 9 persons Chair Pelletier declared that a quorum was present for doing business. Communications: Chair Pelletier recognized Chief Mayer to ceremonially introduce and deputize the Deputy Chief. Chief Mayer said earlier this year the Town Board approved the Deputy Chief for the Department. Mayer explained that six full-time officers applied and his decision was difficult as he has a highly qualified workforce. Mayer added after a lot of deliberation he would like to appoint Phil Smith as the Deputy Chief of Police for the Town of Delavan. Supervisor Malsch read the Letter of Appointment. Chief Mayer remarked this appointment is effective until Chief Mayer would cancel it. Deputy Chief, Phil Smith thanked the chief for giving him the nod and for the faith the Chief has in him. Chief Mayer reported this appointment is effective today March 14, 2007. Comments and Suggestions of citizens present: None Old Business: None New Business: a)Reports/ Discussion/agenda preparation of issues resulting from monthly Committee Meetings 1.Administrative Committee Supervisor Nowak reported that Clerk Endisch put together a key check-out log for the annex building. This would be the method to get a key if one of the Board members would want to have a meeting there. Supervisor Nowak said the Employee Handbook had been distributed to the Board Members and Clerk Endisch has received feedback from Chair Pelletier and Supervisor Endisch. The feedback was primarily grammatical errors and will be corrected. Nowak asked the approval of the handbook be on the Town Board agenda for approval next week. Supervisor Nowak said she would also like to address the legal bill from VonBriesen for the review of the handbook. Nowak said the invoice is for $ 1,276.56, which is $ 276.56 higher than budgeted for. Supervisor Nowak remarked the amount of legal advice that was needed was far greater than anticipated and she would like to petition the board for additional funds to cover the expense. Supervisor Nowak asked for an agenda item for this additional expense. Chair Pelletier explained how he would like to proceed with the resumes for the Administrative position. Pelletier reported he provided the Supervisors with the 5 finalists and with two being from WI, he felt these two should be interviewed first. Pelletier asked for some guidance from the board; how to interview; setup a series of interviews with the individuals or interview as a board. Pelletier thought that would be efficient but might be overwhelming to the candidate. Supervisor Polzin asked if the Town would pick up the expense of transporting the out-of-town candidates. Attorney Wassel said that is the customary practice. Supervisor Endisch remarked he felt that only two of the candidates would find the job challenging enough; he thought the others were over-qualified. Endisch added they have a lot of experience; almost too much for the Town of Delavan. What would the Town give them to do to keep their interest? Chair Pelletier said he would contact the two WI candidates and see if they are still interested. Pelletier will e-mail a few dates to interview the candidates. Supervisor Malsch said when he worked at the City, they would have the candidate come in, interview them from a series of questions; asking each candidate mostly the same questions and then have the Police Chief or designee take the candidate around to show them around the Town. Chair Pelletier will call them; get dates; put together a schedule. Supervisor Nowak asked about sending a letter to the candidates that didn’t make it. Chair Pelletier said letters should be sent out. Nowak asked if the other three finalists should also be sent a letter. Attorney Wassel responded if the letter includes that the Town will keep it on file, unless the candidate doesn’t want the Town to, would cover that situation. 2.Emergency Government No meeting 3.Finance Committee Treasurer Wisniewski reported the field work portion of the audit is done. Wisniewski has a concern that the cable franchise fees from Charters haven’t been received yet and she has been getting the run around from Charter. The Town normally gets the fees around the 10th of February. The auditors will not be able to apply it to this year’s budget, because the fees need to be paid within the first sixty days of the year. The amount is around $ 30,000; Wisniewski added the surplus for 2007 will just be smaller. The accountants are working on finishing the audit and she would be available to come to the initial audit meeting. Wisniewski added this would be in all fairness to the new treasurer, that way she would be available if there were any questions regarding the audit. 4.Fire & Rescue Committee Supervisor Polzin reported the committee will be meeting again next week to go over a couple of items. 5.Lake Committee Chair Pelletier reported he has nothing for the agenda. Pelletier met with the Lake Project Consultant today, who reported the project for Brown’s Channel is under budget. Treasurer Wisniewski asked about special assessments for Brown’s Channel. Chair Pelletier responded the project isn’t complete; 80% done. Pelletier reported that if the state will allow the town to sell the spoils; we could earn $ 15,000 to $ 20,000. Pelletier added there will definitely be special meetings regarding this issue and a special assessment once completed. 6.Park & Tourism Committee Supervisor Endisch passed out copies of the layout of the proposed Community Center addition. Endisch said he ran the layout and positioning of the addition by the County and DNR and both assured him there would be no issues. Chair Pelletier asked how the layout would abut the building and Endisch showed the board. Endisch said the proposal would be to close off the front aircraft door and put a front on that side of the building to match the new structure. The idea is to leave the 2nd and 3rd doors alone, so that they have the open air concept for 4th of July, Fireman’s picnic or if a rental would like the doors opened. Supervisor Endisch said the park committee is asking for $ 9,200 to pay for the preliminary design and budgeting for the proposed structure. Endisch added in 2004, $ 18,000 was approved to pay for the engineering design for a proposed Community Center. For The $ 9,200 there would be some sort of a rendering to show the citizens; prior to a referendum to approve the funds. Supervisor Polzin responded by saying he thinks it is more important to look at a town hall. He says the girl’s have complained about the structure; it is very inconvenient when you have a meeting at Town Park; the priority should be to look at a new town hall. This would be the place to have meeting; offices for the girl’s and offices for the town board members, who have no storage for anything today. He is currently storing all his paperwork at home and would like a filing cabinet to store at town hall. This facility should be all under one roof. Chair Pelletier responded a new town hall would include a large meeting room. Supervisor Nowak said the Town doesn’t own any land to do this. Supervisor Endisch said the $ 9,200 could come out of fees in lieu. The Community Center addition would be generating income; more weddings; better up scale weddings, could accommodate smaller parties. Chair Pelletier said he doesn’t think the town should compete with private enterprise. Pelletier added he agrees with both issues; he can see a useful purpose for both; but it is hard for him to sit there and propose to sell this to the residents. They know what they have here today. Attorney Wassel replied the Town should have a facilities analysis, to put everything under one roof. He said Baxter and Woodman could do that, what does the Town need and how should the Town accomplish it. How much space is needed? Supervisor Polzin said back in the mid-60’s he could have built a Town Hall for $ 50,000. Treasurer Wisniewski said there are no reasonably priced halls in the Town; Lake Lawn Lodge is about $ 8,000 to rent a hall; she doesn’t see that we are competing. She added with the no new development message, where is any additional revenue going to come from? Supervisor Malsch said this is the second time a park committee has work on a proposal for a building. A lot of work has been put into this concept. Supervisor Polzin responded the Town Board didn’t give any directives to research this. Supervisor Malsch responded that is what committees are for. Committees research issues and bring to the board for approval. You don’t have to support the idea. Polzin responded he thinks the public hasn’t had enough notification of this issue; one week before a board meeting this is sprung on the board for approval. Supervisor Malsch said the fire committee researched the billing system on their own; this came out of committee. Malsch added the only thing you want to pass is if the ideas are your own so you can take credit for it. Malsch said and then we should all do what ever you want to do; you are not rational. Chair Pelletier said if two board members want on the agenda, he will put there. Supervisors Endisch, Malsch and Nowak asked for an agenda item for discussion/possible action to allocate an amount not to exceed $ 9,200 for a preliminary design for a proposed community center addition. 7.Plan Commission Supervisor Pelletier asked to have the following agenda items from Plan Commission: Approval of a CSM for Craig Curry (land division) Variance for Inn Between Matthew Sloan/Inn Between to rebuild a single family residence Approval of a CSM for Rita Yadon, 2 parcel land division Approval for a CSM for Dana Montana (land division Chair Pelletier added the Gramse issue is coming to an end. He will provide the board with documentation regarding the same. Supervisor Nowak asked if the approval was for 15,000 square fee or 40,000; Pelletier responded 15,000. 8.Police Committee Nothing to report 9.Public Works Committee Chair Pelletier reported that Tom Thiele has asked for a partial reimbursement for his cell phone; as when he is working off-site; going for parts etc., he receives a lot of town calls from suppliers and the like. He has a cell phone for the convenience of the Town. Chair Pelletier would like an agenda item to approve $ 30.00 per month to Tom Thiele for town usage of his personal cell. Chair Pelletier said the committee is starting to review the road list for 2007; the boar d will see something next month. Attorney Wassel asked what was holding up the funding for Mound Rd. Treasurer Wisniewski said the town has already made the first installment on the contract; the town doesn’t know if they aren’t doing the work. Supervisor Malsch said he heard they think the town should have paid more; we only paid an amount to cover to bring the road up to town standards not city standards. He heard the city want to renegotiate the agreement. Treasurer Wisniewski responded, the town has a contract and we have already paid on it. 10.ETZ Committees No 11.Other Chair Pelletier reported he would be e-mail the board information for regarding the meeting with the cities next week. Pelletier was meeting with the administrators of the cities; he would then know what the topics are. Supervisor Polzin said he brought this meeting with the legislators; they suggested there be a row down front for them; so that they could hear what is going on. Supervisor Nowak addressed the issue regarding Fees for EMS, which needs to be reviewed and amended in March of each year. Nowak reported she sent three e-mails to Supervisor Polzin for an agenda item at their monthly fire meeting with no response. The committee is having a special meeting prior to the Town Board Meeting to address this issue. She asked Attorney Wassel if he could create an ordinance addressing the new fees. She would provide him with the information. Nowak asked for an agenda item to approve the ordinance. Chair Pelletier would like an agenda item for action on the Partition Fence Order/Determination. Pelletier asked about the issue of the trees cut down; Endisch responded Shodeen wanted to get their money back for the trees they cut down but the issue has gone away. Attorney Wassel said he should take that part out. The entire document was discussed and a few minor changes were made; Endisch will forward the document to Wassel’s office for his approval. Endisch added that Mr. Reed wants Shodeen to put up the fence. Wassel added the execution section would be the board signing the document. Adjournment: Supervisor Endisch made a motion to adjourn the meeting with a second from Supervisor Malsch and the motion carried unanimously. Chair Pelletier adjourned the meeting at 8:00 p m ATTEST: APPROVED: _____________________________ ______________________________ Colleen Endisch, Town Clerk John Pelletier, Town Chair