arrived on this 5th of August 2026 is my honor to call to order the City of
Racine Common Council. The first order of business as always is the Pledge of
Allegiance. If you could please rise as you are able and join me in the Pledge of
Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands one nation,
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
President Jorgensen did we have any excused absences this evening?
We do, we have two. We have Alder Mack and Alder Kelly.
I'll be duly noted in the minutes. Also just as a note we do have
Alder Frazier who's joining us remotely.
President Jorgensen would you like to make a motion regarding the minutes of
July 21st? I move to approve the minutes.
So motion in a second to approve said minutes. All those in favor of the
minutes please say aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion carries.
We do have two proclamations before we get into
public comments this evening. One for National Farmers Market Week and
another for Women's Equality Day. I will read them into the record now.
First one reads whereas farmers markets provide
residents with access to fresh locally and regionally grown foods while
supporting Wisconsin farmers, food producers and small businesses.
That farmers markets strengthen local economies by creating opportunities for
farmers and entrepreneurs to sell directly to consumers keeping food
dollars circulating within our communities.
That farmers markets promote healthy lifestyles by increasing access to
nutritious foods and encouraging residents to enjoy
fresh seasonal products grown and produce close to home.
That farmers markets create welcoming community gathering places where
neighbors connect. Visitors discover local businesses
and families enjoy the unique character of their community.
Whereas the city of Racine welcomes the Racine Farmers Market on the lake a new
community tradition that supports local agriculture, expands access to fresh
food and activates the city's beautiful lake
front while connecting residents directly with regional farmers and
producers. Now therefore I, Corey Mason, mayor of the
city of Racine, Wisconsin do hereby proclaim August 2nd through 8th
2026 as national farmers market week in the city of Racine
and encourage all residents to support local farmers and producers
by visiting farmers markets and celebrating the many benefits that they
bring to our community signed this 5th day of August
2026. The other proclamation before us is regarding
women's equality day and it reads whereas the nation is celebrating
America's 250th anniversary and whereas women's history is recognized as
essential for understanding the courageous complexity of our nation
that knowing women's stories provides essential role models for everyone
that role models are genuinely needed to face the extraordinary changes in
unlearning challenges in the 21st century that learning about women's
tenacity courage and creativity throughout the centuries
is a tremendous source of strength and that women in the United States have
continuously worked to gain full rights and responsibilities public or private
legal or institutional as citizens of the United States
and that women in every state and every cultural and religious group work to
expand democracy by securing the right to vote for women
and that Congress has designated August 26th the date the 19th amendment in
franchising women was certified as women's equality day
and whereas recognizing women's equality day as a day of celebration
throughout the country emphasizes the importance of women's work for
democracy now therefore i Cory Mason mayor of the
city of Racine do you hear by proclaimed that in conjunction with the celebration
of the nation's 250th birthday commemorate women's equality day
august 26th as a national day celebrating the importance of women's
suffrage movement and women's work to secure and expand
equal rights today signed this fifth day of august 2026
thank you for that everyone we will now move on to
to public comments i will ask the city clerk to read the rules i will say i know
there's a lot of people here who have a lot of passion that they want to bring
to the issue there are two rules i want to just lay out
before the clerk goes over the rules most broadly
the first of which is you will see that there is a three-minute clock
on on each speaker after the three minutes are up
your microphone is turned off that is not a reflection on your commentary or
what you're saying it is instead an effort to treat everybody equally
everyone gets up to three minutes you don't have to use all three minutes
but you get no more than three minutes the other thing is i know this is a
pattern issue but as a matter of the quorum if people could refrain from
shout outs or or applause if people want to do the
signed language applause that would be appreciated if they want to show
support but as a matter of decorum and respect
if people could refrain from commenting on or applauding or
pulling any of the comments that are made here today
and so with that i'll ask the city clerk to please please read the rules of
procedure for public comments the public comment segment is an
opportunity for citizens to speak directly to the common council
speakers will limit their remarks to three minutes
there shall be no dialogue or interaction between the speaker and
elected officials or staff this time is not intended to be a debate or
discussion the common council shall not hear personal complaints or attacks
against any city employee or elected official or any matter related to an
individual claim citation appeal or lawsuit
profane disruptive threatening or conduct that otherwise impedes
the safe orderly and effective conduct of the common council meeting
is equally unacceptable during the public comment period as it is during all
other portions of city meetings candidates for public office may not
use this opportunity to campaign for office
speakers during the public comment period shall follow all rules of the common
council and rulings of the chair including a decision to terminate the
remarks if the speaker does not adhere to these
rules public comments shall be limited to ideas or
concerns regarding the city of rosene we encourage you to submit any detailed
concerns in writing to the city clerk's office or your aldermen
or they can be properly documented and directed for response
there will be 21 speakers this evening the first one is
Diane kenaski at 5101 right ab
hello i like to speak about two issues tonight i'm going to reverse the
discussion talk about bowling first and clutter second
the reason why i have the um the melodal barbie with me is
it reminds me of a friend at a net and i met at halo
Rebecca Ryan although Rebecca Ryan was Caucasian
the spirit and the like and the likeness of Rebecca's leadership
reminds us about um how she handle bowling and also how she is an
ally to many people lgbt and she is very kind and helping
mothers give them a respect when she would play basketball
with the children that was needed at halo
the other point about bowling what i like to mention though too
is that um sometimes people bully because people have to
have someone that's a different partner it's a different skin color
years ago when i had a friend i was seeing
we went down to one fast food restaurant there when i lived in konosha
and i i had a great time with parents went there but
when we went there everyone and it was like guess who's coming to dinner
2017 style and at one point even the magic came up and
spoke and said all you guys are supposed to be this
and you you are older than one one and you knew
the you know her parents and he was very disappointed
and even my friend was he said well let's go
so basically that's another that's a former bowling that also can happen
sometimes does happen third former boys when i was taking the
boss um about 10 days ago i was on the bus and
it was a hot day i was a little bit disheveled and some said well is that
really a woman and there's three guys in the back they tried to
go after to try to mitigate this one person got off even the bus driver asked
me to get off saying thought be better safer but i don't want to get off
because i needed their condition and also the neighborhood
bus was getting off on um i've been bullied and abused since
childhood because when i went to elementary school i used to have to
carry an instagram cold act instagram at a camera because i
spoke so much that i'd have to take pictures of the
bowling they had to go through the school a photobook to find out who the
boys were and sometimes they didn't even use the older
brothers and sisters to play me so when i'm trying to say it's
basically um we still need to work on bowling
medical questions my core questions and even a youtube video like um
there's a huge call from we just call it says boys will be boys will be boys
girls will be girls so that should not be tolerated
and and even to form your school video so if someone does that go get an
attorney you know go after the school um and the rest of the comments are in
the transcript thank you
the next speaker is oscar selynis 521 6th street
afternoon members of the council um i want to come and talk a little bit about
public safety and uh a couple things to happen this
week and i'm a little bit hurt um
i don't write speeches i don't i don't do that but we have to remember and i'm
just saying this because of everything that's been going on i'm not
publicly talking about one issue but when we make our vote when we talk about
what we do we have to remember those who serve this
community and the ones that are affected by some of the
decisions that are made and the reason i say that is because
this week we lost a hero we lost an officer
that worked in this community
and yes it was during training yes it was through two medical issues
but we lost somebody so i want to take a few minutes to talk about him
and the service that our officers get daily
and how we should do everything in our best honor to say thank you
and to respect them and to vote for our community
and not on what means to me vote for integrity vote for our community
with that being said i'm probably not going to make through it through the
next part of this but i'm going to say this
the true hero racy and attribute to canine asmin
a steadfast procedure a gentle partner
and a beloved guardian of the racing community
the servants fade the sheds learn across the quiet streets of racing
a sudden chill upon the air a silent duty waiting there
but where the darkness pathways bend steps out the handler and the friend
not just a badge not just a stride while quality
inside you walk the beat with steady paw
a living shield of bond in law to trace the loss to face the boat
with heart of fire and code of gold you gave your prime you gave your best
and led each heavy night to rest how many times the cold winds blue
you comfort lived in following you a neighborhood could sleep
secure because of you and your watch over us
to walk beside a hero shred to feel no fear
we're danger led this was the gift you left behind
the trusted friend
the next speaker is run piercing forty seven twenty bird av
yes good evening all uh i'm here to discuss about the
problem that we're having where i live at uh forty seven twenty bird avenue
that's uh mean managed uh a little incorrectly
uh it's owned by wisconsin housing preservation corporation
who supposedly is a prominent leader in affordable housing
in the state of wisconsin they claim to have six hundred and ninety million
dollars worth of assets and yet in the last uh
months we've had two elevator breakdowns
uh in the building uh unfortunately it is not an Otis elevator it's a
northwestern elevator and they are out of business
except for a man that's up in richfield that runs the company from there
so they elected to employ comb to repair the elevator
and the question is how long will that be
because uh like many of us who live on the third floor it's kind of a
difficult situation if you're dealing with handicapped people in a building
of 90 units so expectations as far as i can see
are very temporary and i feel that maybe hud would be investigating this a
little bit more and maybe they should be losing their hud
affiliation if they can't square up what's the problem
i mean if you have six hundred and ninety million dollars in asset size
please you know don't insult our intelligence by saying it can't be
done sooner or going to another vendor because they did not go to northwestern
elevator where he could have gotten the parts or they could have gotten the
parts earlier uh the problem still continues i think
because it's a temporary fix and that'll be the third time
in probably a month and a half where we have to climb the stairs
uh my suggestion is that we get somebody there to be
of some help to navigate the steps like a bellman or bellhop
but management hasn't come forth on that
nor has the owner owners be wisconsin housing preservation corporation
and uh it's kind of dismained to me because as a professional
realtor i can't see where ethics here is being
you know applied um and i think hud should get a little bit
better involved in this as well as the city we're seeing for follow-up
it needs follow-up because uh the building you know half of the building
is handicapped and we've gone to three
people as far as the uh management righty joseph
alexander company and meridian and i claim
nedulans on all of it thank you for your listening
the next speaker is angelina cruz 720 south marcatch street
hi everyone good evening mayor mason members of the council
my name is angelina cruz and i represent assembly district 62 here in racene
but before i was your state representative i was a granddaughter of
migrant workers my grandparents came to racene in the
1950s to find factory work in the shadow of what our
government called operation wetback a federal campaign that rounded up
into ported people who look like them whose papers were questioned
whose belonging in this country was treated as conditional
they built a life here anyway they worked they raised a family
they planted roots that eventually grew into me
standing in front of you tonight as the first Hispanic elected official to
represent racene at the state level i carry that history with me and i
carry it tonight because i'm watching it happen
again as a state rep what i'm hearing from the people of this district is
that families are afraid of a knock on the door
a routine drive to work dropping off a child at school
real or perceived fear that keeps a mother from
calling 911 or a witness from talking to police
or a family from a doctor's appointment that makes us all
less safe not just the immigrant community all of us
this isn't only a racene story or 2026 story it's the same story that's played
out again and again in this country different decades
different targeted communities the same tactic
make people feel like they don't belong so they stay silent
and disconnected from the institutions meant to serve them
my grandparents lived that story in the 50s
families in this city are living a version of that right now
as their state representative my job isn't to wait quietly
it's to stand in front of the people that i represent and say plainly i see
you and i stand with you that's why i'm here tonight in support
of the ice ordinance it does not stop federal agents
from doing their jobs under lawful warrants or court orders
what it does is say racene's own resources are parking lots and garages
our parks our officers time will not be used to subsidize civil
immigration enforcement beyond what the law requires
i didn't arrive at this position alone at the state level i've co-sponsored
the keep families together bill package which contains these same protections
ending secret unidentifiable policing keeping local jails out of federal
civil immigration detention and keeping our schools
churches and hospitals safe places rather than staging grounds for
enforcement what's in front of you tonight is racene's
chance to enact those same protections locally for the people who live here
in the 50s my family found a home in the city despite a federal government that
told them that they did not belong tonight i'm asking you to tell the
families of brusine clearly and unequivocally
that they do i urge you to pass this ordinance and i think you very much
for your time this evening
next speaker is hosea palacios at two thousand kirni have
good evening everyone yes i am hosea palacios uh two thousand kirni avenue
also here as a former lulak wisconsin state
director um on behalf of lulak as well as the latino community i
wanted to present that we are not or alone in how we feel
about the actions of ice and the new york city bar association views with
alarm the u.s. immigration and customs enforcement
customs enforcement officers new practice the wearing of masks and otherwise
obscuring their identities when conducting
detentions and arrests this abrupt change comes at a time when these
government agents actions are the subject of widespread scrutiny
numerous legal challenges in a public eye crowd outcry for
from individuals and organizations including the city
vehemently opposing unlawful detentions and emphasizing the need
for due process of law for detainees in this light the decision to begin
concealing the faces of law enforcement agents who are carrying out
arrests and detentions appear to be an effort to evade
accountability and to decrease transparency in response
to increasing allegations of government overreach
abuse of power and violation of constitutional rights
the use of masks is one among a collection of legal issues presented by
the administration's recent actions against immigrants and visitors
and even some citizens but a significant one that can and should be
immediately addressed and remedied
i've met a numerous number of people who have
have family members who remember their grandparents their great-grandparents
who were immigrants that came to the u.s. became citizens
and had lived with fear at the beginning because
of not being accepted in this country and now it's being renewed to hear the
current stories of people in the community who are
reliving this this type of emotion that used to be
existent in the past and now exists in our present time
is said i ask that you support this ordinance
thank you
the next speaker is erin etch at eight fourteen russet street
thank you for the time my name's erin eich i'm here to speak about the
immigration enforcement proposal excuse me and
we'd just like to make a few points so i've been a teacher for 21 years
an advisor for youth-empowered in the struggle for about 18
years and a member of the statewide board for vosas de la franterra for
the last six years so i kind of have been watching this
kind of work go on all over the country different cities kind of handling the
situation differently some trying to be progressive
some trying to be more conservative or regressive
and so i'm here as a leader in the community to say thank you
just for putting it up there this is good work
this is important work and this means a lot to a lot of people
and so as a teacher you know we have a lot of data
but one of the pieces of data i'd like to kind of just anecdotally talk about
is the idea of a student with hope
with hope so students with hope do better period
students with hope do better and that's not just students it's
humans with hope do better and and that's important for building
community and when you all as people with power
and leaders in this community build infrastructure to say
you can have hope here you can have hope in racine
no matter where you are from you can come here and have hope that we're
going to stand with you and so we're changing people's lives just by
putting this up there and so i know for a fact that there'll be
students who know about this and it's going to change their life
immediately just thinking that i'm living in a town where i feel supported
and so a lot of immigrants are are reaching for that all over the
country so uh that hope is a first step
and you know as i said i'm a member of vosas de la frantera as well as youth
empowered and struggle and i think that like i just want to say i look forward
to working with all of you since you know your alders but leaders
as well and the room is filled with leaders uh tambien and it's like it's
time to build community just like you are doing
that leads to power and that leads to wealth building and and so our
children can kind of look to the future and think this is going to be okay
and really we're losing a lot of our children we really are
there i mean i talk to them every year every semester
about what is your what are your hopes and what are your fears and it is
stark it really is and so thank you for uh getting to this work and i urge you
to pass uh the proposal this evening thank you
the next speaker is maria moronk at 1019 crab tree lane
good evening my name is maria moronic i am a member of the russian interfaith
coalition immigration task force uh risk rick has 27 face faith
organizations in the community and we're focused on justice issues
and one of the issues that we are very concerned about
is what ice has done to this country to to the state and to our community
i don't know if any of you caught the news this morning
um but new mexico had ice come in helping to build the wall
and in order to build the wall they had a drill
wells without going to the community without following the regulations that
you're supposed to follow when you um dig a well despite the fact
that new mexico is suffering an extreme drought
they just built their wells and took the water out and did whatever they
please as i excuse me as ice has been doing
in communities across this country they stopped drilling temporarily anyway
at this point because there was such public outcry
about how they were mismanaging the important natural resource of water
that the community needed that the farmers needed in order to survive
this is what ice does it just goes in and does whatever it
darn well wants and only if the community
raises up and objects as they did in this
instance do things change i am so grateful to mayor mason
and the city council here for initiating this immigration resolution
i have friends who are immigrants who are scared to death
to walk down the street every time they see a police car
every time they see a sheriff's car they're afraid
and it is not making us healthier and safer in this community
so i just wanted to say thank you so much i hope you pass this resolution
and i am grateful to all of you thank you
the next speaker is janet serrano at 1820 Jerome boulevard
good evening everyone my name is janet serrano and thank you for the
opportunity to speak tonight i spent 15 years in the immigrant's
rights movement i started organizing as a teenager while attending
washington park high school as a yes student and i saw first handout
immigrant policy immigration policies impacted families
and friends in my community since then i've had the privilege of working alongside
immigrant families students workers and community leaders across
wisconsin to advocate for policies that recognize their humanity and protect
their dignity for me this ordinance isn't about it's
more about it's more than immigration it is about it
it is about it the kind of racy city racy chooses to be sorry guys i'm a little
nervous it's about creating a community where every person can live with dignity
contribute without fear and know how they and know that they belong
racyan has always been a city shaped by immigrants today nearly one in four
residents in the city of racyan identify as
latino and thousands of our neighbors are born in other places
with the majority coming from light and america their entrepreneurs factory
workers teachers help teachers health care workers parents and taxpayers
who helps to strengthen our local economy
immigrants helped shape racyan and every every single day and they deserve to
be treated with the respect and humanity that every person
deserves i support this ordinance because it reflects
reflects values that i believe racyan should stand for
compassion fairness and inclusion it is important
it is an important step forward ensuring that our city
prioritizes its residents and creates an environment where immigrant
families feel welcomed and valued and creates an environment where immigrant
families feel sorry but i also want to be clear
that this cannot be the finish line this is only the beginning
racyan has the opportunity to continue leading with courage by adopting
policies that truly protect immigrant families
and ensure that everyone regardless of where they were born
can fully participate in our community and i hope the council sees this ordinance
not as the end of the conversation but as the start of a stronger commitment
to who to who all call racyan home and i respectfully ask that you vote yes
thank you the next speaker i apologize i can't read
the last name but the first name is gary the last name it looks like
starts with an end if you could please state your address
thank you you're up gary
i'm basically gonna say the same thing that someone else in my
building was um talking about and a little bit more
in that the elevator usually with some exception at times doesn't affect me
directly i care about people that it does uh
uh of fact then and i'm trying to keep track of
how many times uh meridian um not doing their job or the job
good enough because there's a lot of uh issues um
regarding um meridian i i know meridian from a long time ago i
had another apartment building when i first came
to what was seen in in some ways they improved and since
done but in a ways it got worse so i think um
opie man or i'm already in should be looked at real closely
because they say you know some people think um that they don't want to spend
money on things and they they have a community
close it could be a number of reasons why but it might be
partway so people can't how to talk to each other regarding the
elevator business and um and if money is the
issue about the elevator and other things they when they close the
community room they left the
air-conditioner on for the community room and also what
food in there that was donated by uh in in
agencies so they're they're not real what responsible
and when they fix my when they installed a different smoke detector
by me i i know for a fact that making sky didn't try it to see that it
walks i had to do that and it does walk because
he forgot to turn to the breaker pack on that he had a
shed off to um to win uh install it that's
how dependable they are or at least this maintenance guy is
nicer than the last previous um to but um i don't know
maybe he asked the depressor to do um a lot of stuff because they don't have
uh uh enough help i don't know or maybe he
thinks that it's too you know too too much from him but
that's basically what i got to say
the next speaker is Colin McKenna 724 Crabtree Lane
Good evening i'm a member of Racine Interface Coalition
and many immigrants live in Racine and many immigrants are working hard to
get their visa in green card at the is for them it's a long process
to get their visa in green card so i urge you to welcome them to the city
of Racine and i urge you to protect them from ice
because ice is doing terrible thing they drag them out of their vehicle
they break their windows and they need they have rights like we do
so i urge you to protect them and do justice and do the right justice
tonight and vote for this ordinance disintegration
ordinance thank you
the next speaker is Dixit Patel at 6536 Biscan Ahab
Good evening everyone my name is Dixit Patel
thank you for allowing me to uh opportunity to address the council we uh
are requesting this license because we believe our business will bring the
positive addition to the community we are committed to
operating responsibility and following all city
requirements
it's important to stress uh our year in the business at christianos we are
committed to the neighborhood in the board location will be
benefit to all of course we are going to have a
ebt we have made a large investment processing the
building ventillary avenue which is to last to put print for a grocery store
only i would like to be a distancing in the neighborhood
advise them to amount you spend or we spend in the
residence as stakeholder in the community the geographical
contiguous neighborhood is a four to six block and uh
our location is ordered the member of the neighborhood can walk to ride
a bike to end stop uh in the car we experience in the grocery
but we are capable to serve the earlier items ready to eat food
and support the local neighborhood with the food item that will benefit
and enhance their lives this could be fresh produce
meat and ethnic food like italian and mexicans
or any item they might request the desire is
to offer multiple profit center like ready to eat food
and ability to have social area to serve coffee food and bakery
this area will be bright and inviting to member of the community
a design area for people to have formal meeting meet in a small group
socialize and being the grocery store we not have
at the stigma of a dark order bar that promotes ours in the location and heavy
concern some of alcohol there was a committee meeting where
opposed gravity on to end uh earlier request to change the
zoning which projected to sell open a class
class a liquor store liquor license that was watered down as uh
specifically not a part of the current application
the current application is for class billizer which is by
definition is the chapter 125 statue
statue is part of permiss uh consumption by the uh
by the class of alcohol boundaries this proposal is for people to use their
local grocery store as a place to purchase food and
be taken home and the person is ready to eat food
and a balance the class billizer is to have another profit center and offer
good to the community to promote other item in a grocery store
the next speaker is fidel hernandas 939
wilson have
okay
she's going to speak english and he's going to sign
my name is maria ernandes
yes and he's he's my son fidel hernandes
talk say something talk talk yes i'll repeat it
you may you may be there
ernandes are you want what you want to say thank you
thank you for help us
sorry he's got trouble to understand
fester he made interpretation for silent
but he's good boy he's good boy he worked for amazon
he tried for me he went to a schooled delivan
Wisconsin and he gave his drug license
and he's diploma for silent he's so smart
thank you very much
the next speaker is diana valencia at 39 19
ruby ab
thank you um
hi so i do repeat again right so thank you i'm diana valencia 39 19
ruby avenue i like to thank mia mason and all of y'all
and the many leaders um who have the courage to
introduction and move this uh ordinance forward
um i was born and raised in racy in wisconsin and i'm
sure you've heard this many times um we've been here before
as people have been saying um well 250 years
to be exact um and each generation continued
work for peace and that peace is ongoing so um
it's our generation now and uh
i too couldn't just wait and see um what might happen
so um the city is a home to rich and diverse population
whose residents regardless of natural origin and language contribute
to the city's economic strength culture vibrance and civic life
and immigrants and their families build and sustain the city's
economy schools and the neighborhoods making essential contributions to
businesses public service and community life
i like to say myself and the common council and and all of y'all have worked
so hard to keep our city safe and um today i just want to say thank you for
bringing this forward and and hope that uh you continue to move this forward by
saying yes well um and i'm here as uh representative
of lulek the league of united latin american citizens
and um i represent the state uh as uh deputy state director
um so the hard work that you've done is not just for the Hispanic people
but for all immigrants so thank you
the next speaker is shava dalenia jackson at 23 17 21st street
good evening all my name is shavondal and jackson and i am here to support
danny patel for his application for a class B license
danny has already demonstrated that he is a responsible local business owner
through christianos supermarket who i have the pleasure to visit when i forget
ingredients uh for my dinner um he cares about his
customers he maintains a clean and well managed business
and has been a positive part of our community
this new project will bring new investments to the taylor avenue area
create local jobs um and give residents another place to shop
eat and gather instead of leaving a vacant property unused danny is
investing in improving it and making it an asset for the neighborhood
i believe he understands the responsibility that comes
with um maintaining or obtaining a a class B license
um i also know that um he'll maintain security use
surveillance cameras um keeping the property clean and working with the
neighborhood to address any concerns or issues
um i respectfully ask the council to support his application
because i believe he will operate his business professionally and responsibly
um thank you for your time this evening
the next speaker is diane lang at 2908 Ruby Ave
good evening again um i come before you tonight
in favor of the immigration ordinance proposed you
proposal that you'll be voting on but tonight i wear a shirt from my
faith community that says meeting the moment
on the back it says courage is a muscle many people coming up here tonight
have exercised courage just to come before you
and that's so wonderful my faith believes in the inherent
worth and dignity of every person and we believe in justice
equity and compassion in human relations i am tonight standing as a member of
vosas de la franterra a member of the raseen
interfaith coalition the NAACP and i could go on because i have been an
activist in this community since the early
mid-70s
i know i look so young it's hard to believe that i've been here
um so this past monday we heard comments
from the before the executive committee for over an hour by people
who only shared their support for this proposal
they shared their concerns and fears of living in
under the cruel policies of the current federal administration
and the immigration and customs enforcement officers
i share particularly deep concerns about the current cruel policies that our
federal government is enacting not just at immigrants
but also based on religious beliefs if they're lgbtq
if they are temporary protected status citizens from hate
Haiti or afghanis who may have worked to support our military at one point
but now they're disposable and they can be deported
i share particularly deep concerns about the dragnet that ice is continuing to
expand at at some point people who are even
protesting might be now declared domestic terrorist
right so i have six grandchildren and i hope that i'm not
ending my life in the prison but it's possible because we have to stand up
for the moment i support this ordinance for a variety of
reasons i've already been mentioned so i'm not going to go through it again
but increase racial profiling increase deportation
eroding public trust and public safety
and and undermining the economy of our local
city
the next speaker is Nate Ortiz 32 18
Northwestern
hello and thank you for the opportunity tonight thank you to
Mayor Mason and collaborators for putting together the ordinance against
ice and immigration enforcement here in in Racine
i'm here as a teacher here in Racine a teacher who's caught taught students
all the way from kindergarten through 12th grade
and i hear the concerns that they have as evidenced no more by the protests
and other demonstrations that our usd students put on last school year
at the end of the day students are at the center of all the things that we do
as teachers in the classroom and outside of the classroom
the bottom line is that no student should feel unsafe here in Racine
no student should have to wonder whether their parent will still be at home when
they get home which is why i'm in support
of these ordinances and i encourage you to vote yes thank you
the next speaker is Andrew Arena 1110 MLK Drive in Milwaukee
thank you mr mayor and honorable members of the council i'm here to speak with
to you regarding the application of Dixit Patel
for 1950 Taylor Avenue for a class b liquor license
there is a recommendation tonight before you from the committee
which was the result of three votes i believe there's 15 of you
and i'm going to ask you to look at what was proposed
what is proposed and determine if it's reasonable to
override the committee's recommendation and i believe that that is in fact
should be overridden
submitted today by mr Patel was a petition with 79 signatures of people
in support i think it's interesting that i'm here
tonight and you're speaking about your ice ordinance
and there's great support for it here and i find it interesting because
i'm an attorney i'm an economist i have a master's degree
in economics all from the University of Wisconsin
and i have a degree in entrepreneurship and as an economist i'm a free market
person i believe in competition and i believe in
everybody's desire to come here to america
for opportunity and i support opportunity
now a couple of things that occurred at that meeting
was there was a large number of detractors
who were actually mostly indian people who have liquor stores
tavern gas stations that sell beer
and they're in the business and claiming
there's too much liquor available in this area
well that's clearly a desire they're trying to wipe out competition
i find that to be abhorrent and unamerican
we were founded on the idea of a free economy
and we have rules against that the other thing and i think what
persuaded the committee was there is a rehab center
by rosene and the statement was i believe from alderman kelly that
they should not have liquor or be have liquor available
but if that turns on that it doesn't make sense
somebody's not going to walk past five other liquor outlets
to go to danny's grocery store
i mean you have my wife's my girl michael and joey's
brusse's tap tommy's risa's event planning
so why are we going to let that control and i don't think that the county of
rosene
the next speaker is briana shah at two zero zero seven stone bridge drive
hi my name is briana shah and i am here to support
dixie pattel's application for class b license
for danny's grocery i have known danny over the decade
his successfully managed his christian or supermarket
very hardworking and honest business owner who has given his sweat and blur
to run this business after harvard store shut down
this property has been wacken for years he has by this property with a huge
plan of turning into grocery store and daily
this business will bring healthy competition and new job opportunities
for the competition healthy competition is good for
both business and consumer this property is
used to be only grocery store any business is good till it's making
profit and granting class b license will give him
opportunity to this make this business success
this area does not have a true competition
all grocery stores are owned by one single family
and there is only one daily after uh public committee denied the
application uh almost 78 uh people from the
community came together only in one day
and signed a petition he's going to do great i have seen him working so hard
so thank you for your time
the next speaker is hose charo at 5900 wildwood drive
hello everybody thank you mr mayor and the council for
all hoping hopefully passes immigration
i'm speaking i said this once before in konosha
for the for the ksd the kids whenever younger
we went school they were not afraid to go home
they're not afraid to go to school they knew that parents were going to be there
they knew they could get home safe today
they're scared they don't want to go to school
they don't want to go in there they want to sit home but their parents
why should they be afraid to go to school and why should they be afraid to come home
and the parents are missing they shouldn't feel that way
really feel that way did we when you go to school no
so why should they
i mean it's
the immigration thing has to stop we had to protect the kids
all races all every school families have to stay together
they shouldn't be separated
and yes i am with lulak called so 320 receive konosha
and i am the president thank you
the next speaker is amy wellness at 91 30 83rd street
hi um i am amy wellness i have been a rosina unified educator for 13 years
um i am here as an esl teacher i work with multilingual children in the
district meaning that they have families that have
immigrated more recently than i have and they're
they have family members that they love and care about that are impacted by
immigration today um my children have been afraid
for several years now because of what's going on in the world
um they even see people in the school building with that
look official maybe have suits on and they're worried that they're ice
and they're brought to me by an administrator crying
they tell me their parents have told them they need to carry their paperwork
with them and they have their paperwork with them at all times
um it is incredibly hard for me because one of the best parts of my job
is my students and their families um they are why i love my job as much as i
do um whenever they're in need whenever i contact home they are so supportive
they are so caring get a lot of free tamales
um they are some of the most
wonderful giving people that i have ever met
and i keep my students for many years i don't just teach them for a year and
send them on their way i keep them and so i tell them once
you are with me you are mine forever you may grow you may leave you may go to
another school you may become an adult but you will always be a part of me
and to see them afraid to go home to worry about their families it is a
worry that i carry it with me as well um at school i am their safe person
and i want racene to be a safe place for them i want racene to be a community
where they feel safe and i cannot even begin to tell you how much this would
mean to them to know if you pass this ordinance how much
safer they would feel um so i really ask you to consider
passing this ordinance because it would have significant impact on our
children and everyone not just our immigrant families but
everyone because they add so much to our community
and they bring so much joy to our world so thank you
the last speaker is aj zizic at 2402 south lennick street
good evening everyone my name is aj zizic i'm a veteran racene teacher of 21
years and i currently serve as the president of racene educators united
and i'm here speaking as an individual in favor of the immigration ordinance
i believe that how a city treats his most vulnerable and needy says a lot about
his character if we as a city want to show that we are
compassionate and caring then there is no better way
than standing up to an unlawful agency of masked thugs who invade communities
and tear apart families imagine as a student trying to do your best in a
classroom while shouldering the uncertainty that you and your family
and loved ones could be unjustly separated at any time
imagine as a teacher trying to do your best at your job
not knowing whether or not a student would one day just disappear from your
class roster families and businesses thrive in
communities where they know that they are safe
and cared for and that's what this ordinance does
racene needs to be on the right side of history
the legacy of this city and this body depend on making the right choice
and the right choice is to pass this ordinance thank you
this concludes the public comment segment
thank you everyone who came to offer comment just procedurally in terms of
people wondering well we'll have a next we have a series of items that we have
to refer to standing committees then the first item will take action on
tonight will be the the issue that was discussed
around the immigration policy but before us first is referrals to
committees we will start with the first item
alder jorgensen could you please read the first item for referral
yes the first item is 0687-26 communication
sponsored by aldermen whitener for referral to public works and services
committee discussion of implementation of removal of
existing parking meters installation of new signage
and placement of signage and kiosks there's a staff recommendation
due to the significant fiscal implications associated with the removal
of all parking meters including the loss of revenue and potential
budget impacts this communication should be referred to the finance and
personnel committee i did have a chance to talk with alder whitener
and she made it very clear that her item is about the implementation
of the new parking meters and how that transition works
not related to the removal of all parking meters
and so i've talked with the director of finance and
she's comfortable that she won't be at the public works meeting but as long as
it's related to the actual implementation of the new
metering strategy everyone is comfortable i am as
well of moving to refer it to the public works and
services committee there's a motion and a second to
refer this item to public works um alder whitener would like to speak to
the motion thank you i'd like to speak to the
motion to send this to public works um the reason it's not appropriate to go to
finance it was it just at finance last monday and we
discussed the financial implications of the contract related to this
there has been no public outreach with the businesses in the downtown area
six street uh uptown about how it's going to work
once those uh parking meters are removed i was
saddened that there has not been more of initiative we do have
a director of communications we do have a very robust public works
that in the past would have involved those most involved with
the consequence for the changes regarding the parking meters being
removed and a new implementation of both the
app and texting and kiosks uh businesses need to know
so they can assure their customers it's going to be able to
park their vehicles so we need to have public outreach
and that was my hope in this communication that we could have that
discussion at public works and direct the department
to make some effort in the business districts um
to let businesses and individuals know how this change is going to affect them
it's been a motion in a second to refer this item to public works
all those in favor please say aye opposed that motion carries
we'll then move on to referrals to finance and personnel
mary land or i'm sorry altar land would you like to make a motion
regarding referrals to finance and personnel yes i would like to move to
following items to finance and personnel
zero six eight eight dash two six communication requesting the city
attorney present proposed settlement in the case of adam laki versus city
of racene item zero six eight nine dash two six
communication to approve a resolution authorizing the
issuance and establishing the parameters for the sale up to
22 million seven hundred thousand of twenty twenty six
general obligation promissory notes to be used for the paying
the cost of various capital improvement and acquisition products and vehicles
and equipment item zero six nine zero dash two six
communication requesting permission to enter into agreement
with tyler technologies for the upgrade and implementation
of our current erp financial software to include the utility billing module
excuse me item zero six nine one dash two six
communication to approve a resolution authorizing the issuance
and establishing the parameters of a sale up to fifteen million six hundred
ten thousand of twenty twenty six general obligation
refunding bonds to refund the general obligation
promissory notes for the purposes of paying the
construction cost of the mark dr martin wutherking
community center item zero six nine two dash two six
communication sponsored by alder land in order presenting a proposed
ordinance zero zero zero five dash two six
light nuisance item zero six nine seven dash two six
communication sponsored by the mayor to apply an accepted donation
up to five hundred thousand dollars from coal philanthropies
for the lkcc grant grant
item zero six nine nine dash two six
communication sponsored by mayor mason for review and approval
of the amended twenty twenty six operating plan
for bid district number one downtown
item zero seven zero zero dash two six
communications sponsored by mayor mason
presenting an interim parking modification lease
addendum between the city of racene and mcmin tower
um i'll take a second
there's a motion in a second from alder pebone all those in favor
referring these items to finance and personnel
please say aye aye opposed that motion carries we now move on
to public works and services alder
harman did you want to make a motion regarding these items
yes mayor thank you i would like to move to refer the
following items to public work services
item zero seven zero six seven zero dash two six
communication sponsored by myself submitting bid results for contract
twenty twenty six one nine five twenty twenty six
sidewalk replacement item zero six seven seven two six
communication sponsored by myself submitting final payment for contract
twenty twenty four zero six two twenty twenty four cctv sewer
inspection green bay pipe and tv llc contractors
item zero six seven nine dash two six communication sponsored by myself
requesting to rescind resolution zero one one seven dash two six
due to an error in change order number one under contract number twenty twenty
five one four five with cast check roofing ink for
multi-side roofing work
item zero six eight six dash two six communication sponsored by myself
requesting to approve final payment to cast check roofing ink under contract
number twenty twenty five one four five
for multi-site roofing work and to approve the penalty prescribed
by the racing works program ordinance
item zero six eight one dash two six communication sponsored by myself
requesting to rescind resolution zero one one four dash two six due to an error
and change order number four under contract twenty four one zero seven
with burgland construction company for tuck
pointing work item zero six eight two dash two six
communication sponsored by myself requesting approval a final payment to
burgland construction company for contract number twenty four one zero
seven for tuck piking work tuck pointing work and to approve the
penalty prescribed by the racing work program
ordinance
item zero six eight three dash two six communication sponsored by myself
submitting change order number two to contract twenty twenty five zero zero
five twenty twenty five sanitary sewer main cipp
linings visu sewer contract item zero six eight four dash two six
communication sponsored by myself submitting final payment of contract
twenty twenty five zero zero five twenty five sanitary
sewer main cipp line linings visual sewer contractor
communication sponsored by myself amending chapter
ninety four article two division two speed limits
more specific section ninety four dash five two
speed limits increased schedule a section one
we would like to edit the following item in section 130 miles per hour
from 12th street from east junction of washington avenue to west junction of
washington avenue to 12th street from east junction of
washington avenue to south memorial drive
item zero six eight six dash two six communication sponsored
by myself image real estate requesting permission for
revocable occupation permit for the property located at thirteen oh one
north wisconsin street
item zero six nine six two six communication sponsored by mere mason
authorizing the department of public works to close racing street
from karaan but the drive to washington avenue
on october first twenty twenty six from seven a.m. to five p.m. and on
october second of twenty twenty six from seven a.m. to five p.m.
for the twenty twenty six city of racing clean sweep number three
and submit a dual detour plan to wisconsin d.o.t. for approval
in a motion in a second refer these items to public works and services
all those in favor please say aye opposed that motion carries
we will now move on to item zero to insert the executive committee report
i assume there will be separate consideration on this item i will ask
president jorgensen to please read the item for separate consideration
yes there's been a request for um this item to be pulled for separate
consideration uh the recommendation of the executive
committee unanimously was to move to approve item
zero six six five dash two six communication sponsored by mare mason
all their wife's all their povon all their allen all their land all their
harmin all their pete all their demarc presenting proposed
ordnance zero zero zero four dash two six immigration enforcement
so motion to approve the item seconded by all their povon
all their drug insurance would you like to speak to your motion
you know i think a lot of the folks here have done uh
said it better than i could have myself other than i think everyone deserves
to feel safe in receipt we have a couple others in the queue
alder whiter thank you i used to have a question or two
questions really for the chief of police if he would avail himself
please take your question and the chief will approach the ds
thank you for being here chief i know you and i had a conversation about this
i have two questions the first one is the policies that are outlined in the
ordnance as presented tonight um have those policies
been in place for the city of ercyn
oh good evening council members mare um i can i can answer this at the
not as you consider this proposal i think it's important to keep the road
the um rasim police department in mind
the rasim police department and i think this will answer the question
is not a civil immigration enforcement agency
never has been and never will be civil immigration is the responsibility
of the federal government we the police department do not
engage in political matters of political debate
our mission is straightforward to investigate crime protect public
safety and serve let me emphasize this all residents of our
community no matter what your immigration status is
i do want to acknowledge that highly publicized federal immigration
enforcement operations can affect the community trust
and it has affected just listen to the individuals that are here tonight
listen to their stories
the rasim police department is a highly trained organization
we spend a lot of time in training and
treating to make sure that we treat our
individuals our community with dignity and respect
no matter who you are when people become afraid to interact with law
enforcement victim and witnesses may be less willing
to report crimes or cooperate with investigations
i can't have that we are about public safety
that makes it more difficult for us to do our job and ultimately affects
public safety historically the rasim police department has not
actively participated in civil civil immigration enforcement
and has never served as an enforcement department
in those operations never has our focus has always been
and continues to be keeping our community safe and build trust
with everyone who lives here i hope that answers the question
maybe not but i wanted to say that because it's important
and i want you to have that opportunity my second question is has there been
any interaction with any immigrants any residents any citizens
of the city ever seen with ice that you are aware of
there's only two instances of those uh incidents have come to mind and those
had to do with departmental homeland security
who aids in the criminal investigation arm of the federal government
so was that interaction between the police department and homeland
security or the individuals and the homeland security that you were
aware of the individuals with the homeland security not the rasim police
department okay thank you chief i do have a
question from the city attorney it's in regards to the
language in this ordinance please state your question
so in the ordinance talks about uh no masks i wonder if there was any
thought or discussion on requiring ice agents in the city ever seen to be
wearing uh cameras as our police department does as
our sheriff department does
um sorry
well that's not in the ordinance um as drafted to see uh
concern is requiring question of requiring a federal law enforcement
agency to take certain actions or to carry certain
equipment as opposed to the prohibition of any
law enforcement officer with some exceptions of wearing a mask
that the city could not require federal law enforcement
agencies to be equipped in any particular way
follow up so wasn't there a ruling that said that that
that federal agents cannot be banned from wearing masks
there is litigation on these issues that is ongoing
on just the mask issue or other issues as related to this ordinance
mask issue is the one that we've paid close attention to
but there are other areas that are being litigated in other
parts of the country thank you thank you
thank you mr mare so just to a point is that it doesn't matter
if an incident has or has not happened in the city we don't have to wait for
something to happen to take action on something
number two to the police chief's uh point here
that it has been the policy of the Racine Police Department not to engage
in these kind of activities it's probably also the policy of the Racine County
Sheriff's Office until it isn't policy is not codification it is not law
protecting people that's two different things
whether or not this is at litigation at the federal level which
why would it not be when this came from the federal level
is irrelevant there was litigation when they were trying to integrate
schools there was an integral there was litigation
before president johnson signed the 1965 voting rights act as well
people are always going to want to try to stop progress
and for us as city officials people that live here
we're not just inclined to protect people that have a legal status
because people that don't have a legal status also are residents
that pay taxes too that are involved in our community that are neighbors
friends family members spouses so if this is a part of what we can do
to help them better sleep at night or to help them say hey
we don't have that many tools but we can do this
then why not regardless of where it's at in a federal level of litigation
regardless of how many incidents have happened
and regardless of what the policy is at the time
we determine policy we are the council
we decide legislation we decide rules we decide laws and ordinances
the same way we decide budget so i will not take
an answer of three-week responses that question this
period i am in support of this because it's our job
to help our citizens to help our residents and to make sure
that we are doing what we can to make them feel safe in the same way
i went to bat when the douglas bid wanted speed enforcement
and the same way i've had numerous conversations with the chief
about all sorts of things going on the same way i just went to night uh
national night out last night for community
that is our responsibility and that is our job i'm in support thank you
alder allen
alder allen you have before okay thank you and thank you office
uh for chief coming for and answering those questions but i think that
we have to look at what what could happen so to speak with what
and to lie myself with what alder provone was stating
uh in my walking the police there do not also do not have
an official policy for working with ice however language matters
and so their official policy allows for cooperation with ice in specific
limited circumstances such as when a judicial warrant is presented or for
violent felony cases gang involvement or terrorism threats
that statement matters because we have seen
the context of those statements weaponized by the federal government
where they have falsely are chosen to identify
a group of people or persons in one of those categories for the
sheer purpose of being able to detain them we also know of
cases where ice or people who claim to be ice
are assaulting people on the streets
my walking has an ice out measure where the common council has passed
measures aimed at restricting local police from acting as an extension of
ice including a 2026 ordinance to prohibit
federal agents from wearing masks while operating on city property
to speak to again with what all the provones stated
we don't have to wait for something to happen we do have to position
ourselves so that if and when more likely when
we are able to pivot in a response that protects our community
and we have to start looking at the community as a whole because
all of us that do not present in a way that they would like us to
present are in danger of being targeted
and being detained even if we were to be returned
to our families at some point we have that possibility just because
and as we have seen the federal government take measures
with birthright citizenship with the amendments to
rollback citizenship with their intentional design on interrupting
people on their journey to becoming citizens
reversing their legal status etc etc all those things
make us vulnerable and it is our responsibility to protect
our community and if it makes some of us feel like we are
better then think about you're protecting yourself as well
and we have to fight against the false contacts and narratives that have been
put out there in order to weaponize fear when there is no reason to fear
people who are here just simply living
thank you all the phrases joining us remotely and
has raised his hand to participate in the conversation
all the phrases you have the floor
okay sorry we can hear you all right um so as
though the only person on this council that serves in law enforcement
um everything that i i do i try to view through the
lens of uh public safety and i think the chief hit it hit hit the
nail in the head um the distinction first is that
ices a federal agency and their work is is on the
federal level whereas the police department is local
and he hit it on the head about public trust
um victims have to feel comfortable reporting crimes and witnesses have to
be willing to come forward and families must be
confident when they call 9-1-1 um that they will be protected and that their
needs will be addressed tonight we heard from i want to say
21 people out of those 21 people 12 of those individuals who
who spoke spoke in favor of this ordinance um i think that speaks to the
seriousness of this um we we see we see what we see what's
happening in other communities and to just
add to the conversation with order allen and other pobon
this is a proactive matter i would hate for us to be like some of those other
communities namely in minnesota who have seen the
results of ice uh in their communities um it's not it's not a good thing when
you have a federal agency that's not connected to your
community come in wreak havoc essentially and leave
and then we're left as a municipality that's already
struggling with funding uh our city to clean up the mess that they make
uh so this is just this ordinance i i stand with it i agree with it
as law enforcement as a black man i'm not a
Hispanic so i really don't know uh all of the the fears that they have but i
can em i can um i can understand what what they
feel and so i think that this is this is good
um and we need to to support this and get this
going forward thanks thank you all your
thank you mr mayor uh first of all i'd just like to say um i would like to
also be a sponsor uh of this ordinance uh i'm
speaking without objection we will add you as a
co-sponsor to the atom thank you i also want to say that i'm
speaking in behalf of the young people for the yes group i've been there
several times over the last three years and i've seen some amazing young people
and they have bright futures ahead of them and as leaders of uh this
a city council and local government we set we set the standard for the city
uh i too want to say that you know we want to make sure that racing is a
safe place for all and not only a safe place for all but
that people don't have to be fearful for and uh the public have spoken they've
came out tonight i don't see this place rarely full
except us uh just you know 15 of us and sometimes five or six out there in the
audience but tonight is full because they are very
very concerned about what's going to happen here so
our two will be supporting this ordinance thank you
on repeat thank you mr mayor i'd like to say again thank
the people in the audience that came out give us input and let us know as a
council how they feel so as we make our decisions
and i want to remind everyone that we're
sitting out a message of how we feel at the city level
i think office appraiser as well as chief of police
said it very well uh if the after this is done or if this
item passes then at least the people know that the
received police department is not in cahoots with
some other law enforcement agency while at the same time
they will be following the law as we all will thank you
order hermit
thank you mayor um i spoke as um one of the sponsors of this
ordinance this past monday during executive
committee meeting and so that was where the bulk of my
support regarding this bill was said and at that time i said how proud i was
of my race scene residents and the people that i know
who actually came out and spoke and i named people like diana and
angelina cruz and diane lank and tami hayward and linda boil and
mike frontier um but tonight i am proud of my
alderman and all the women who are also supporting this
and who are jumping on board of something that is good
and all the pepon i'm really proud of all that you've said
and i appreciate being able to work with you and those are your true
true thoughts and i believe it and all the allen and all the horton
and and just all of us i appreciate working with a council
that cares more about you know what benefits everyone
so um thank you mayor thank you for the legal department
and um putting this together thank you race scene
for for having you know thoughts about how we can be strong together
so i support this
welcome to mark
i just want to say thank you to the community for coming out here
and speaking their their mind for this ordinance um i want to say thank you to
mayor mason for bringing this up um as a um
as my grandmother was an immigrant from europe
um she is she was dealt with some things
not as much as what's going on right now
but all immigrants should be treated with respect
with dignity and they should be they should be treasured
um this this ordinance won't stop us but it will hold them accountable
for what they're doing
otherwise so i know we're kind of all saying the same thing
but this was such an easy one for me to support i think i emailed back so
quickly that it wasn't even uh able to get on the agenda yet because
terror was out of time um but when i was at a town hall when i was
working really hard to try to um be able to serve in this position
there was a request for questions and there were four or five questions just
from my district around should people feel safe when they need to call for
help and it was really obvious that it's it's an
it's obviously not an issue just in my district but it was on the top of mind
that four or five people submitted that as a question
um so i was really excited to see this so thank you for for bringing this
forward and giving us the opportunity um to talk about this tonight i know the
chief i loved what he said and i appreciate that if this
was not here tonight he wouldn't have had the opportunity to say that
in front of this group and i think that was really important that he had the
opportunity um so thank you for saying that because
people need to know how you feel too um as a leader in this community
um so just you know as an educator everything um i just really appreciate
the support for this and i really appreciate seeing everybody here and
just being able to um i think somebody said hope so
i hope we can be a small part of providing hope
other dangers thank you
you may notice my name is not listed as a sponsor
only because sometimes i think things are performative i'm here to say i support
this ordinance as this is part of the advocacy i'm all about
um working with in the past with yes voices and
knowing about lulac for and to see that racing
is stepping up to the movement and making noise
willy bring some warmth to my heart and also thank you to everyone who
came stood for it that shared your stories
stories from your youth your students and your own personal stories
it takes guts to come up and speak um and be vulnerable at times of where
um issues in this administration puts you so to speak up
i appreciate that and i'm here to support and see
how we move forward thank you
i'll do right here for a second time my first time i was asking questions the
first time i had made no comments but i do have a comment to make
now i first i want to thank alder frazier for reiterating the comments that
were made by our police chief and for sharing his
perspective as an active member of law enforcement i think it's really
important for us to hear that um i am saddened at any member of
this body would ridicule or try to shout down an
aldermen who asks questions especially of our
our very highly paid staff whose uh opinion and advice that we
would lie on in order to make the decisions that we have to make
it was very important to me to hear from the police chief
and the city attorney in regards to the ordinance that's before us
um although i've had conversations with the police chief and i understand that
these policies that are now being codified have been in
place since 2008 i think thought it was important
for us as a body and the people that are here attending tonight
hear a perspective from the police chief i also wanted to hear from
the city attorney's office on why we were not
proposing to have body cams on the federal agents
like we do with our our police here in racine
so i just wanted to make those comments uh that
any aldermen serving on this committee should not be ridiculed or
lessened or diminished in any way because they ask questions
and it should never be assumed that an aldermen has a certain perspective
because they ask questions the reason we ask questions is we want to have a
fuller understanding and we also want everyone to have a fuller
understanding so i hope we'll all be cognizant of that going forward
thank you
any other discussion on this item okay so um there's no one left in the queue
we do have alder freezer participating remotely
which means we will do a roll call vote so when the clerk calls your name and
again i just want to remind everybody this is what we're voting on
and again this is item six six five dash two six
communication sponsored by mare mason alderweiss alder pebone
alder allen alder land alder harman alder peat alder mark and now alder
horton as well presenting proposed ordinance zero zero zero
four dash two six regarding immigration enforcement
a vote in favor of it would enact the ordinance
into law when the clerk calls your name please vote
as you wish alder land alder demark alder harman alder pebone alder
freezer alder weiss alder davis alder jorgensen alder weidner alder
horton alder hodges alder allen alder peat 13 eyes zero
nose congratulations the motion is passed unanimously
i just wanted to take a moment of personal privilege and just thank the
community for coming together this is in some ways
the very best definition of a community people coming together and help each
other out to protect one another and make their voices heard in our
democracy so on behalf of the entire city of russian and now a
unanimous vote on city council thank you and to our immigrants you are welcome
you are allowed any of every right to feel safe in our community
thanks everyone
I will also just say as people are filing out we do have other
businesses to continue if you would like to continue conversations
please don't do so in the hallway preferably relatively quietly
we will move now on to finance and personnel alder land did you have any
items for separate consideration yes i do i have one item for separate
consideration please read that item item 0659-26
communications sponsored by mayor medicine requesting to further land
why don't we wait just one minute for the the folks to exit the building or the
the room just so everybody can hear you and we can give
the next item it's due attention
okay i'll go land please read the first item for separate
consideration item 0659-26 communications sponsored by mayor mason
requesting permission that the mayor and the city clerk can turn to
development agreement with the cda and newmen companies llc
regarding the geezy school property located at 51 20 bird avenue
the recommendation of the finance and personnel committee
that the mayor and the city clerk or their designates be authorized
to enter into development agreement with the community development authority
of the city racing and newmen companies llc
for the development of the geezy school property located at 51 20 bird avenue
fiscal note 1031 infrastructure funds would be used in the following ways and
amounts approximately 2.3 million dollars for the installation of roads
utilities sores water main street lighting electric and gas utilities
1.7 million dollars for down payment assistance on finished homes that would
be 50 000 per lot 300 000 of storm sewer
infrastructure would also be funded by account
604 84592 0z or storm water contribution move to approve
there's a motion and a second to approve this item
discussion
all the land yes you have the right to speak to your motion
all their land
okay um we had this presentation done at the finance and personnel
committee i find it to be a very exciting proposal a very innovative
proposal i mean we're teaming up with racing unified school district in the
city of racing into a unique deal that i think is really great for
both they were going to sell the land for quite a bit more
our usd and they sold it to us for one dollar
and in that we're bringing in newmen homes which
and which is a very reputable company to build
34 units of single family homes they'll be some ranch and some two story
and then we will offer city racing employees and our usd
employees 50 000 down pay down payment to buy one of these homes that are
going to be worth about 350 000 some maybe more
and i think this is ideal we're going to build
another little community in racing and we know we have to
we're hemmed in so to bring people in it's a great
way to do it and to live in the city of racing and to encourage
people that work for the city of racing in our usd to
move into the city of racing and support the
city that with their property taxes i think it's a great
idea and i support it thank you all tonight
under wider thank you i have a couple questions one
is for the interim directors are assistant
director of city development and another one would be for the finance
director if the respect to staff people could
please approach the ds
just a quick question chef i don't think you need your laptop
i had posed the question to you i had not yet got an answer
is this newman home shall i see the same newman
developer that had been contracted to do point blue back in
two thousand six seven eight not to my knowledge from the research i
had i thought i wrote back to you sorry if i didn't but it is a different
person altogether the development there is totally different different
company no i i hadn't heard back but i know you
haven't been feeling well hope you feel better
okay it's not the same according to your research
no it's different because i it wasn't clear to me
when i did my research now the developer we're working with for newman they
don't really build the style of homes that would have been proposed that
point blue in like two thousand six or eight so it's totally different
developer from our research different newman
okay thank you you welcome and then i'm sorry i'll
please continue my other question was for the finance director and it was in
regards to a question that was posed to alderman mac
at the finance committee in regards to if this would be an appropriate use
of the sewer agreement funding which according to the documents you've
provided today were uh in 2026 2025 2026 we received about 3.3 million
dollars from the sewer agreement and it is my
absolute recollection that the sewer agreement was intended for the purposes
of economic development which would include a project such as this
so i'm wondering if and i i also noticed that we have had really no
expenditures to speak of from that shared revenue
fund so can you kind of give us an idea uh Kathleen of why
we would be using tid bunny from tid 31 rather than the ig fund for this
infrastructure in particular but also the down payment assistance
sure sure um so just before i begin i just
wanted i want all the elders to know that when we go through development
projects like this the finance department myself
especially analyzes all potential funding sources
for any project of this scale or any expense relating to economic
development actually any expense period when i look at those funding sources
i look at not just today i look at 10 years from now 15 years from now and
what is the best funding source today to make sure that we're still
sustainable for economic development into the future
having said that and why i am saying that is because the fund that Alderman
Weiner is referring to the intergovernmental revenue
sharing fund was developed as part of the sewer agreement that was
signed with the surrounding municipalities
and at that time it provided the city ever seen with revenue sharing
payments of which is part of the budget every year that you guys adopt
that agreement ends in 2032 that is all we have
we gave up our rights in that agreement to any more land
we gave up our ability to annex and get new land to be able to develop
all we got were the revenue sharing payments and while they are
coming in and we do have them those funds need to be set aside to be
used in 2031 2032 20334567 out into the future
that is why this funding source as approved by the common counsel in the
project plan just to remind you the common
council when they approved project plan number 31
approved this project in that project plan with this funding source of
number 31 so in my professional opinion
IG funds for this project should not be used
and they should be set aside for years 32 33 34 35
when we still are going to have extreme economic development needs
and we will have no revenue stream to pay for them
so i just follow up on that so 32 33 34 35
so we're setting aside the three million three and a half million
four million probably going to be up to six million a couple years that we're
going to be receiving in intergovernmental funds we're setting
that aside for really no purpose at all but
had not this funding been ending as per the contract the 30-year contract
would this have been an appropriate use for the infrastructure and the
down payment assistance for the project on bird avenue
the IG fund is there for economic development yes
okay thank you i would just remind the council the council adopted an ordinance
change that requires the IG funds to be used on a revolving loan basis
so they are recycled and not for one-time funding expenditures again that's
council adopted policy uh on that topic
okay thank you
under whiter you have the floor thank you i do have a couple comments to make
um reiterating some of what i said at the finance committee last monday
but i want to expand on that a little bit so this is not going to be the first
time that we dip into a neighborhood
tit and take taxpayer dollars from a group of taxpayers and move it
someplace else i'm afraid this is a slippery slope that will
will continue long into the future um tit 31 covers about 375 acres of modest
homes most assessed between 80,000 and 200,000
and the plan necessarily classifies nearly 60 percent of that acreage as
needing rehabilitation the condition of those residents homes
is the legal basis for the district existing
they were promised repair and renovation loans and grants
they were promised that 25 percent of the taxes that they pay into their
tit would be designated for public infrastructure
within their tit instead not one dollar of the revenue taken from their
property taxes has gone into infrastructure improvements
into their neighborhoods instead what the mayor is proposing and is before
you tonight is four million dollars taken from
tit 31 four million that doesn't even exist yet
two point three million is to build the roads
sewer streetlights for a private developer's new subdivision
a half mile outside of tit 31 and one point seven million
in down payment assistance which will be reserved for the briefing memorandum
for employees of Racine Unified and the City of Racine
not for the hard-working tax-paying property owners
in in tit 31 not one line of it is repair loan to the homeowners this
district will build on no taxpayer paying the taxes
in tit 31 will be eligible for the 50,000
dollar down payment assistance that they are funding
unless of course they are so fortunate as to be a unified or a City of Racine
employee meanwhile here's what the district's
residents actually received when their alleys needed repaving
they got special assessments five eight eleven thousand dollars out of their
pockets from households earning around fifty five
thousand per year after this council was told
tit funds could not be used to cover alley work
the average unified salary is nearly seventy seven
thousand dollars twenty thousand dollars more
than an entire medium household for the entire
that the entire City of Racine earns so follow it through their home's
condition created this district their tax growth
fills it their schools for go the revenue for up to 27 years
they pay the special assessments for their own alleys
and the first four million dollars for
infrastructure they I will guarantee it will be
just the first four million out of the door builds a subdivision on
bird avenue which is entirely outside of the boundaries of
tit 31 with a fifty thousand dollar down payment for
government employees who out earn them the plan
promises these residents these residents renovation loans
this agreements hands their money to people who don't live there
and this is the template not the exception at Lincoln King publicly
built town homes went to the school district employees
at a hundred thousand dollars off buyers chosen by outside entities
and made this district's plan was expanded past 50 million dollars tonight
four million is the opening draw three questions that I have received no
answer is the assistance per lot or per purchaser
and what is the maximum exposure what under what provisions was cash
down payment assistance to the employees of two public
employers added to a plan that promised homeowner repair loans
and did the joint review board vote on this specific use
and is this Newman homes LLC the same failed
failed developer from point blue 2008 well I guess that question got answered
to me tonight before one development dollar
or one fifty thousand dollar uh down payment
fund the repair and renovation loans that this promised
with priority on those alley assessment credit for the district's residents
that they're already paying the people in tit 31
didn't just pay for this district their homes are the reason it legally
exist you can the reason that tit 31
exist on page 17 of the original plan adopted by the council
I asked you to vote no on this the taxpayers in tit 31 were
were told this investment was theirs prove it
this proposal is the antithesis of robin hood and the numbers prove that
so I hope you will hold this down there are other sources of
revenues that could and should be used to pay for the infrastructure and the
down payment assistance for that development thank you
alder bravone thank you mr so I think it's important to outline
that as a city that is facing the structural deficit the economic impacts
that we have that we all know that we're all aware of
that director fissure has said many many times it's important for us to
utilize every tool available to us when she said those particular funds are
for our cushion because we know the years ahead are going to be hard
we're talking about what was originally promised when the tip is made and those
titts being amended and the half mile clause being included in
there project plans approved by the council
already water agreements is an attorney all that stuff before I was even on the
council I do have a question for either
assistant director hence or the director of finance director fissure
about what happens to the fifty thousand dollars
if you know because I know it's the 120 day
right that it's for either our usd or the city proceeding but what
what happens to that that funding just put back into
the tid or or how that works could you just elaborate on that for me please
yeah excellent question so if it wasn't used in this area by
employee it would just remain in the tid okay after the 120 days and it would
be used for some purpose in 31 in that area thank you
so it makes sense that they would have some sort of incentive in there because
our usd is the one that gave us the land and our usd
is also funded from taxpayer dollars so now we're building
on something that would have been is just like vacant land at this point
34 homes that will increase the tax base
not only that but incentivize people that teach our children
that are educators and administrators so on and so forth
and incentivize people from the city that work for the city to live
in the city
so it's not about a misappropriation of funds
I spoke with director fissure in length about this if she could please
clarify how many of those the ten thousand dollar home loan repair
grants a year is at a thousand if I remember correctly
and I'll to I don't want to do a loaded question here but
also out of this tid how do we make sure that those people
are applying for those are still getting it or is this project taking
precedent
no that's a good question thank you the homeowner repair grants will still
take place in tid number 31 I'm just looking it up real quick I
apologize I don't remember off the top and I had what it was but
it is quite a few that we have given
so about 135 in 2026 that we have given out
okay so how do you make sure that the repair grants are applied for by these
homeowners are not pushed out of the way by
this particular project absolutely thank you for the question
so we do an internal budget for each one of the tids each year so we set
aside the grant money first and then the infrastructure money there after
this would be coming out of the infrastructure money
so the grants are always going to come first they'll go in that same type of
rotation as the grants do now right we open one
at a time just for administration purposes but
the grants will still take place just like they have before
thank you I would be in support of something like this because
we have to find ways and opportunities we can't build out
some people were on council when these water contracts were made
and crippled our ability to expand
to annex to grow we can't grow out so we have to grow up
and news flash even when we do that that just allows us
per the current levy formula to raise taxes to help us get out of that
structural deficit but by increasing our property tax base
and utilizing the funds that we have available to us
this is the these are one of the best ways that we can do this
while maintaining that fund we're going to need
as a cushion in the coming years
we don't get anywhere by doing the same thing over and over and over again
so I would support this thank you
alder to mark
hang on alder to mark let me turn your microphone on
all right I think this is a great opportunity for the Racine
the city we're seeing to grow right now is a vacant land
it's not getting any type of tax revenue it's just a vacant land owned by the
district this is a great opportunity to get
people in the houses into the city to contribute more into the city
and to add to our revenue and I'm sorry but
to to reduce our usd workers and city workers as not hard working people
I find that disgusting because I am our usd worker and I am as hard as
workers anyone else in the city so that's it
alder Harman
thank you mayor
I think that sometimes people encourage a certain vote by
kind of making people scared or fearful
and I'm not pointing anyone out but this is what I'm hearing I am hearing
that you should not perhaps vote for this because
it takes money from one kid in which taxpayers are putting money into that
kid and they are expecting some type of infrastructure improvements
and for that money to go into that kid and by taking money from
that and putting it in another kid it actually defeats the purpose of what
the original philosophy and purpose behind it was and that was to improve
a city area within Racine
and I'm thinking it's a half mile apart from each other
t31 and t34 is a half mile radius of each other
they use the same roads they use the same utilities
they use the same parks they use the same community services
it's not like
it's on the other side of the city it's a half a mile
someone's making it sound like you draining all of the money out of one
tier and putting it into another tier that isn't even existed yet
it ain't even been approved yet it's within a half a mile of each other
it's the same community
I'm not even going over the fact that Racine any improvement in racing
so you can want infrastructures include homes and driveways in front streets and curves
infrastructure includes money coming in some type of way where people are motivated to stay
longer live longer be longer in Racine put more money in Racine
and we are trying to build homes in an area that's within a half mile of each other
so that several other forms of income can go into that same community and we want to
make it like it's 30 mile a whole nother city whole nother community over
let's keep this simple our vote yes for this
on the wider for a second time thank you I asked myself why am I so passionate about this
why am I willing to let my blood pressure go up to 180 over 90
it's a very simple reason this last spring like every year we had a public hearing on
alley repayment there was a young woman that came and spoke at the public hearing in regards to
the assessment that she would be charged if she if we would approve up paving her alley
she also told me that last year in 2025 as a resident of tit 31 she had building code violations
she applied for a tit grant but did not receive a tit grant to address those building code violations
in 2025 so she requested an extension from the neighborhood enhancement division to address
those building code violations in 2026 she received an extension for the building code violations
so she contacted me because she got a letter from Ned saying that she would be charged I forgot
what she told me per day for not complying with the building code violations because
the extension had passed and she said well I have it marked on my calendar to apply for a
tit grant to address those this year in 2026 and I said to her looking at the website as the
application period I said I don't want to be the one have to tell you this but the window for you
applying for a tit grant for 2026 closed three weeks ago she said no no no that can't be I have
it marked on my calendar last year I applied in June well I said the application period changes
every year so this year you you've missed the opportunity to apply for a tit grant I asked her
her address that address was within the focus area that we now are designated so in the focus
area within the tit if you have building code violations or you just are a property owner within
the tit the department of neighborhood enforcement come or enhancement comes around it puts a door
knocker on your door letting you know that you when the window is for your application so she lived
in the tit had building code violations had an extension and she received no notice of when
the application period was for her so this year again she missed the opportunity
to apply for a tit grant to address those building code violations and she lost her job at Eunphi
and fortunately for the council we did remove her alley from the special assessment which would
have cost her another six thousand dollars which she didn't have because she's struggling to pay
for property taxes so it's going to be encouraging for her to know that some of the money that she
struggles to pay in her property tax is going to get moved over on bird avenue to either put an
infrastructure over there that she can't get or it's going to help somebody have a fifty thousand
dollar down payment assistance even though it's coming from her property tax so that's why I'm so
passionate about how you will I cannot support this because I look at the people in tit 31
and know how they struggle and I just don't even though the council approved it I am
adamantly opposed to it but and that's it other dragons thank you so we all live busy lives I
get it we can't always attend every committee meeting although any alder is welcome to attend
any other committee meeting it if you don't sit on it and plenty of alders do just that so we did
have other alders come to the last finance and personnel committee and there was quite a few
questions that were asked although I am a bit confused because some of the questions that were
supposedly left open of we don't I still don't have an answer to it we're asked at the last
committee meeting and given an answer one in particular is is it one down payment per person
or per lot I remember the answer to this because I was interested in the question and so I can tell
you Jeff can give a thumbs up if I got it right but it's it's per home it's not per person if there
was two unified employees they wouldn't get a hundred thousand dollars it would be fifty
thousand so that was answered the same question of why can't we use this for alleys the the answer
was given again at committee which is there is a rule of the but for clause and once again I
think I'm going to be an expert at this by the time that we've I've heard it over and over again and
I have had to say it now over and over again and the but for clause is we can only use the the
TID money if it wasn't if it was but for or however it was basically if it was going to happen
anyways we can't use the TID's TID funding for it and so replacing someone's alley was going to
happen whether or not the TID was there but building a brand new subdivisions infrastructure
wouldn't have been able to happen if there wasn't TID funding available for it and so that's the
story on the alleys of why can't we just use this for alleys we've heard it over and over and over
again was at committee again and then the question of the the use of the IG fund a similar answer
again of we had a terrible deal that was done through the city to provide sewer and water to the
outline communities and we signed off our right to be able to grow to be able to expand our tax
base through new land acquisition and development I think some people still maintain that that was
a good deal for the city but looking back on it there's a lot of places where we continue to lose
and one of those is that those payments that we're getting don't go on in perpetuity so if we're
going to start using it to be put towards one-time expenses that is a I'm sorry I there's I have
the microphone I'm I believe if you wanted to talk again you can push your button but I'm recognized
if the chair could make sure that all the jurgents in you have the floor thank you
um so once again the use of the IG fund is is something that we have to be very careful with
we don't get that back and the payments don't go past an arbitrary date although I can promise
you we will still be providing sewer and water to the communities and still will have sold away
our ability to expand and grow and I get there's gestures of move on however it's really important
because that has has put the city in a terrible position where we are now losing population
we're focused on trying to build up there was the the method in this I would say is just merely
building in we're in filling into a vacant lot something that we have to do so before we we snub
our nose at the idea of providing down payment assistance to some of the hardest working employees
in the city before we say well let's use this one time thing that we're getting that's going to end
that we're not going to get again we should use what's before us to make sure that we're able to
grow and expand and this through the process will actually help towards lowering property taxes in
the future because we're able to expand our tax base there's new homes with a comment was made
tonight that it's an empty lot that we're not getting tax revenue from these would be new homes
that we would be spreading the tax burden amongst so i'm fully in favor of growing the city
and giving a hand up to some of the hardest working employees that we have in the area thank you
thank you alder aun thank you all we've heard some wonderful comments about about this plan
and i just want to say that i believe that our director of finance gave a very good explanation
about the two dollars and how those things how those dollars move in and out it is to be noted that
with those those two dollars and the expectations i'm going to move on to just the sustainability
and the attractiveness of Racine two people who live here and that we want to maintain
and retain their residency here as well as attracting others and i don't know
when you drive through neighboring municipalities they have worked collaboratively as a community
to refresh those municipalities and then you come into Racine where we are beginning the process of
making our city one of those municipalities that takes full advantage of the things that we've
been blessed with and built on those so if you live in a particular area and you've been able to have
that area designated as two dollars and as alder Harmon mentioned that just a half mile
distance between these two that we're discussing right now you know anything that we do in our
community as a whole that gives a shine or a refresh to the city is a win all the way around we are
we're building together as community and we have to start looking at ourselves that way if we don't
we're just not going to exist anymore we have got to let go of the the band-aid approach and the
you know we just want things to stay the way they are we have got to take advantage of the
of the opportunities that come because of of decisions we've heard that said you know we
make these decisions when you vote with the cognizant well that's in everything that we do
and we are in 2026 and we have just celebrated at the 250 we're celebrating
100 some odd years of Racine we have to look forward to the next 50 to the next 75 years
of this city and we're talking about affordable housing so when you talk about okay well
these homes are going to be made available for for this set of people it isn't any different
than when we look at homes that are available for maybe our aging community or people who are
on fixed incomes and we make again parts of our community available and accessible to them because
they matter to us we are working at reducing transit you know where our children and our families
are trying to find places to live and they can be in a district or have access to good
education and to make those things available for them so our vote covers so many facets of
impact for our community that we can't just sit back and be one-dimensional in this thought
process this is a multifaceted impact for our community and so we of course are going to support it
I'll do land for a second time yes I either director Fischer direct lines I asked this question
at the committee level but I just want to clarify for those that weren't there and didn't hear it
I asked if there was enough funds left after this and 1031 to still give out the ten thousand
grants and you said yes there was so what again I if one of you could come to the mic and
audibly confirm that I think that'd be helpful correct there are when the accounts are set
up at the beginning of the year they're set up between infrastructure and then the whole
water program so there'd never be any risk to the whole water program being funded
other winder you spoke in twice other Alan thank you and I wanted to make another
statement I meet with the director of finance and our assistant director of development quite
often and when it comes to messaging that is also something that takes apparently a lot of us to
participate in so if our we have we have districts that we can communicate and message within and
if I think it would just help I know I practice it I find out when things are happening on the
calendar and I make those that information available to my district so that hopefully they take a
vantage of city opportunities such as neighborhood improvement
other winder you had a question question for the finance director in regards to
1031 can you tell the council what the balances currently are in 1031 that contributes toward
the admin cost and what is currently in the infrastructure portion of their budget
I don't have the infrastructure portion right in front of me but what is available in 1031 as
of right now is three point one million dollars as of one one of 27 there will be an additional
three million dollars that will come into that fund as of one one of 27 there is plenty of funds
available for this project as well as the grant okay thank you other remark for a second time
so this is for the the finance director I'm sorry
so I know we created a couple of tidd districts recently
um has there ever been a time where we could expand a tidd so then we can cover this area so
then we can recoup whatever we spend towards it or is it just that's all it is in this particular
instance I would not recommend expanding the boundaries of the tidd it gets really really
complicated to get into why that is but it it depends on the equalized value of the expanded
area um tidd number 31 was just amended and just approved by the common council had we thought
it a good idea at that time to expand the boundaries of the tidd we would have proposed it as such
I have no one left in the queue when the clerk calls your name please vote as you wish
alder land alder remark alder herman alder pavone alder Frazier aye alder wyce alder
jorgensen alder wydener alder horton alder hodges alder allen alder peat
eleven ayes one no motion carries alder land did you have other items for separate consideration
no I do not then without objection these items will be placed on the consent agenda
will then move on to public works and services alder herman did you have any items for separate
consideration then without objection we will place this report on the consent agenda
will then move on to public safety and licensing alder peat did you have items for separate
consideration yes I do sir I have to please read the first item first items item numbers 065 26
recommendation of the public safety and license committee on July 29th 2026 that the communication
sponsored by alder peat requesting the appearance of kevin dooback doobake agent for doobies located
at 3701 grand avenue sweet 345 pursuant to a formal expression of concern and also requesting
consideration of rescinding the formalings expression of concern be received in file
there's better motion in a second to receive and file this item would that be separate
is the vote then just to receive and files that would be take the roll call in
okay alder peat did you want to speak to the motion uh yes uh the committee decided within
the scoping guidelines of the ordinances and the issues that to receive and file was the best
course of action otherwise thank you have a couple questions the first one is for the city attorney
and can he explain to the council what a receiving file means in this instance the city attorney
well the option excuse me the action that was um anticipated or potentially could have occurred
at the committee was um the issuance of a formal expression of concern which can be on the path
to taking action against the license i receive and file in this case generally receiving file
essentially the same thank you very much for this information we're not going to do anything with
it in this case it means the formal expression of concern was not issued till it doesn't go
on the record of this establishment alder writing is that correct uh mr chairman
so typically a receiving file means that a formal expression of concern is moving forward so it
would be a strike against the premise holder okay so um alder whiner if it's okay that the city
clerk thinks she can offer some clarity to your question i'll call on her to try to clarify thank
you hi thank you so i hope i explain this okay so when the initial item goes through from the
formal expression of concern to public safety and licensing at that meeting you were technically
issuing the formal expression of concern so that leaves you another chance when they're formally
called in to rescind that formal expression of concern by receiving and filing this you are
essentially saying that yes we did issue the formal expression so it exists essentially
against the establishment thank you so i have a couple of questions and that is do we know how
many formal expressions of concerns that this premise holder has had in the last six months in a year
just the other one are you directing your question to the clerk or uh chairman peat
or two of them are you directing your question whoever could answer the question
other people i believe that this is their first in six months so uh as we would if they wouldn't
have any go move forward with litigation okay so my final question is is this formal expression
of concern um because of incidents that took place within the bar or in the parking lot because
i know the parking lot has been an issue for a long long time and i'm wondering if it's
something that took place in the bar that spilled out into the parking lot or if it was just a parking
lot well over the past as you know uh year plus it's been a combination of both in general
the primary one is still outside but there is activity on the inside as well and that was
brought up in committee i'm sorry that was brought up in committee the activity inside
uh yes well from the premises report and whatever okay thank you i've known the question thank you
oh okay um alder harman and then we'll go to alder Frazier next
all right thank you um this is directed to the chair of the committee so i i've heard about
doobies for a while i've heard about how their staff can behave
rudely disrespectfully discriminatory i've seen videos in which management or bartenders or staff
or something have said that they serve certain types of drinks to eliminate certain type of clientele
i i've this i mean i don't know do you only count when they've come before the committee in the last
six months because when the questions was asked the last six months last year so how many times
the answer was they come because of outside sometimes inside sometimes how many times within
the last few years we both outside inside around the side in the mind side have they had complaints
or have had to come before the committee within the last five years about some type of reckless
comment or behavior with regards to this establishment and do you know that i can answer you the question
the way you ask it but i can give you the answer that you're looking for uh we have a it's called
premises report provided by the police department at every meeting and we go through a process
of finding out if who we feel is a it has a problem with public safety i'll end to that way
so some bar some establishments might show up three or four times have major issues
and then the committee would deem it necessary to call them in and see how we can work with them
and the some of the remedies that we use would be with the police department and the city attorney's
office but they're complete processes to answer your questions specifically about the frequency
um there has been a lot of activity which is why as we put it to keep it simple they were issued
a ticket they've also over the past worked in some programs that we had the city has to work
with businesses solve these types of problems all right thank you sure
i'll do the phone um mr. Mayor i think all their pressure was first
a bigger pardon i think all their pressure was was what he before oh he was i am so sorry thank
you for reminding me all the people on all their freezer is here virtually and has his hand
virtually raised all the freezer you have the floor uh yeah so i think that this speaks to um i wasn't
at the meeting um but i am aware of of the concern the concerns and what's been happening um i think
this the the committee choosing to receive and file speaks to a broader issue of fairness but
then it also speaks to one of the the continuous conversations we've been having about loitering
to all the writers are about especially outside we've had many many conversations
with this establishment and the license holder about how they
i hate to use this term police but how they monitor the activity in their bar
and how they monitor the activity outside of their bar and you know the one thing that i get
dinged up a lot uh dinged up with a lot is fairness um they are certain bar owners
who feel as though they're targeted there are other bar owners who feel as though we're not
consistent the last concert meeting um that was one of the things that came up is that you know
our committee seems to be inconsistent in how we handle punishment um since this is the first
um knock against uh doobies um i think receiving and filing is an appropriate step uh and if it
continues uh we would just refer them to the city attorney's office to come up with um a solution
that can that can better improve uh um this bar's ability to to to stay in business uh so i really
in the in the essence of fairness and consistency i think that we should uphold this committee's
recommendation um and receive and file uh this item
and maybe if we could just given all their harmons question if we could ask the chair just to
explain since this is not the first time they've been uh before the committee what was presented
to them that made them decide uh to simply receive and file of it rather than rather than
taking some other action i think that's what maybe seems incongruous
ought to be uh yes uh going back with all our appraiser of the appointment pointed out uh they
we've been working with the establishment over the years and they have been through processes before
working with the city attorney's office with programs that they have and uh it's to continue
with as all the wider pointed out they've had a lot of problems outside it's a huge parking lot
and uh we've been trying to work with them but the consistency and the frequency
all the harm is why we took the action that we did this time
but the goal is to as all the phrases said be fair and consistent but work with the issue to help
make the community over there safer or keep reduce the problems in the area all the problem
thank you mr mare so i i served my first committee was public safety and licensing i served a
whole year on there i'm very familiar with doobies very familiar with the issues both inside and
outside of the establishment and i would like to applaud the committee um for being consistent
and receiving and filing and i think that is the best choice but i do also think to aldermen
widner and all their frasier's point that um it is a broader conversation that needs to be had
about loitering and how to enforce that and how to change that and i think i have seen things
throughout the counseling committees that it that is addressing that so in this particular case
we the resources have been made available and this is a situation where i think
this is appropriate thank you alder aldermen hi this is thank you this is a question just about
consistency so is there a set number of times that an establishment has to appear on the
premises report before they are called in for question to whom are you addressing your question
aldermen uh and might might we address it to the city court yes please okay
sure thanks for the question so the license premise report contains a bunch of different
police reports and any time they're either called out to establishment or it could just be a license
check or it could be that someone at the establishment called the police so there's not a set amount
of time it's up to the discretion of the board but that's because it might have been the right thing
to call a police officer maybe someone was heard outside and walked in you wouldn't want to count
that against the establishment so oftentimes it's up to the discretion of the board of whether or not
you know a lot of these calls could have been prevented or if they need security measures
or kind of cases like that but there's not like a set amount of time someone needs to be
mentioned in a license premise report there could also be something that's so drastic and a bar was
never mentioned on one that the committee would still like to call them in so i hope that answers
the question aldermen you showed before thank you so we had uh some owners come before the council
a few weeks ago make a statement about consistency and they're being uh
concerned that there weren't a set of guidelines that they could follow and the other part was that
the committee can change every year so there isn't a set rubric for anyone to follow so it was
mentioned that perhaps we could work towards having a rubric that could be followed because then we
would have a defined way to look at these incidents instances that even the bar owners could review
and any incoming committee member would be able to use as a tool in order to go for it and the
arbitrary and subjectiveness element would be removed largely from the process i don't think
that this is a scientific method it's left up to yes anyone's uh emotional attachment maybe
other people i just wanted to comment on the outside issue we are working with the attorney's
office and one of the representatives came to our mid-last meeting to go over the city's laws on
watering and so we'll be looking at that and we may have something that we'll be presenting to the
council other writer thank you i think this needs to be on the record um the public safety and
licensing committee at each meeting gets the license premise report from the items that are
on the license premise report they will see some things that give them concern so if they're
concerned about something they would call the premise owner in to discuss what those concerns
are they can receive in file or they can rescind in this case according to the letter that was
received by the premise owner on july 7th mr dubiac was called in for two incidents the first one
was on june 14th 2026 and that was for officers provided extra attention to the parking lot
officers dispersed a crowd upon their arrival no violations observed that on 620 off-duty
officer requested assistance to disperse the crowd crowd was dispersed with no violations
observed the second incident does not say anything about the parking lot so the issues at doobies
have remained in my view uh to be the parking lot and we're seen as not the only community that has
problems with large groups gathering in any place they can find the area which to gather
unless it's something that is in the control of the premise owner i don't know how we can hold
them accountable for what takes place by people that are not affiliated or customers of his bar
things that are happening in the parking lot especially such a large parking lot like what's
out at the plaza so all right the motion before us then is to receive and file this item if you're
in favor of receiving and filing please vote aye if you are opposed to it vote no
alder land alder demark alder harman alder pabone alder frazier aye alder wyce alder jorgensen
alder wydener alder horton alder hages alder allen alder peat
11 ayes 1 no just a comment after the vote and there's questions of consistency i can tell you
in almost nine years of doing this this city has never taken away a license from anybody we're
pretty consistent about not doing any sort of enforcement in that regard and this is one of
the number one complaints that we get consistently through our community and there's no perfect
rework anybody can come up with to anticipate the frailties of human existence and interactions
around alcohol and people around bar time so i just hope we will continue to take these issues
seriously public safety and licensing should do its due diligence but this is an ongoing challenge
that we continue to hear about here in the city alder peat did you have another item for
separate consideration but yes i do item zero six six zero twenty six communications sponsored
by myself submitting a new application for a class b retail fermented malt beverage and
intoxicating liquor license for the pedestrian dba danny's grocery and lounge which would be
located in nineteen fifty taylor avenue that's a hotel agent eleventh district recommending
recommendation of the public safety and license committee on july 29th that the communication
sponsored by alder peat submitting a new application for a class b retail fermented malt beverage
and intoxicating liquor license but i'm sorry diversity ink dba danny's grocery and lounge
located at nineteen fifty taylor avenue dixie patel agent be denied i've moved to approve
that allows to motion to to approve the committee recommendation to deny the license so it's a bit
confusing but the motion is to approve the committee recommendation to deny the license
is there a second
is there a second on the committee recommendation second
this second
on the circuit oh alder freischer did okay thank you
alder peat would you like to speak to the motion
yes i would start off by saying the committee did look at it thoroughly and followed the
guidelines of based on the zone important over there and the feeling was unanimously unanimous
that the grocery store part and the jelly would be a great fit for the area but we were also
concerned about some of the public safety issues some of and the fact that i am for
competition happen of study economics extensively myself but and so i believe in
competition however we were concerned about saturation of alcohol consumption of beverages
between actually washing the avenue in 21st street there's another uh...
establishment of less than a thousand feet from there i think it's a different type of
license but and i'll ask the attorney's office to speak to that but uh it's just a
extensive amount of alcohol consumption places book carry in as well as inside consumption
that was the initial premises
of the land
yes i'm going to speak against the committee's recommendation on this
um i like the idea of a grocery store and a deli going in there i remember i'm old enough to
remember when there was a pigly wiggly store there and i've known danny for many years christianos
is not my district but it's on my way home i stopped there maybe a couple times a month
i've never seen a problem with this business i've never seen anyone loitering there
and i think that um he's not asking for a license to carry out package liquor he's just going to
have a small area where people can have looked like it's going to be he's going to employ
ten people i think full-time and ten part-time and i i just hate to see another building sitting
there vacant and i do support this project
alder hermit
thank you mayor
who's district whose district is it's alder land okay i just i just wanted to know
all right so the um forgive me i really don't remember if we have public comments on this
issue do we have public comments on this issue what did the residents say was there a more
were there more a majority of the residents they came out that spoke against this i i just need
a refresher it alder land if you have that answer or any of the other alders when there was public
comments on this issue how many came out for organs my recollection is it was about split
it was split completely all right i don't know i wouldn't say exactly but there were people who
came to speak in favor of it there can't speak against it let's let's say that it was split
there's just as many people who are for it there are just as many people who are against it
then i'm going to go strictly to what our ordinance says out of fairness our ordinance says that
there is a cluster that is already on paper that if there are too many facilities of the same
nature within a specific area that we should not allow same type business when it's associated
with alcohol or cigarettes or or things like that i want us to stick to what's at what's on here
and if the committee is doing their job i want us to support the committee doing their job
because each and every last one of us know how hard it is to be on a committee when you're trying
to be fair and consistent and so that people can look at each alder is you know one day they this
and one day they that they actually followed what we as the people who voted for them said that they
that they will do and let's do it so i support the committee and what they are saying because
i understand that they're doing their job to the best of their ability and why they were voted
thank you alderland it sounds like you weren't on commenting i'm so sorry i've moved on to another
speaker you have the floor well when you said that there were people against and for it was you
took in at the committee level because tonight i didn't hear anyone speak against it at the committee
level there were those who spoke in favor and those who spoke against it yes and um i think the
ones that were against it were competitors um i get the robocalls you know and i had about three
three or four one of them owned a liquor store who was against it that's a competitor
another one didn't tell me if they were a competitor or not i called him back and he never called me
back another one didn't state their purpose another one email me and asked me some questions
and then never got picked me about that too but tonight you know there was a lot of people that
came to speak for it and i don't know all the harm and we had this petition in our mailbox
of all these people that signed in support of it i don't know if you got it out of your mailbox
yeah but um i didn't really have a lot of objections from people in the 11th district
that live there but from business owners thank you i'll be drinking some
yeah i tend to um i tend to go with what the the altar that represents the district
want to say there's 15 of us for a reason and so all their land is in support of it in reading
the materials it did say that there were some staff concerns that they maybe didn't have all
the occupancy permits yet and there were other things to get um so you know i i don't want to
make a motion for the the altar of the district but i throwing it out there of maybe potentially
deferring this until any of the outstanding permits are received and then it can come back
and that would alleviate a lot of those concerns that were detailed in the report
i think would be one of the paths forward and i'm seeing some hands on this so i i would move
to defer until all of the outstanding permits are are received for this to item to come back
there's a motion and a second to defer this item um back to committee or defer it and defer it
back to this defer it but so re are we deferring it or are we referring it back to committee
deferring okay we would defer this item until the relevant permits are obtained
and it was seconded by alder harman yes um so what we have before us is a motion
to defer i will just say there were a number of people in the queue to speak on the main motion
we now have a different motion in front of us i will still take them um in the order that they
were received however if you didn't want to speak on the referral motion but wanted to speak
on the main motion feel free to unfresher button and we'll take it in the order received
other jorgensen did you want to speak any further on your motion i would yes so i think what this
gets us is the ability to um allow any of the outstanding permits to be received it allows
them to move forward with the grocery store portion of it where they can continue to pursue that
and as those items fall in line it's not denying this so there's not the one-year waiting period
as this goes forward as a grocery store it's able to come back when it's got the permits
and so i i see it really as an ability for the business order to continue his quest of of
having and operating a grocery store while allowing us to still weigh the concerns that
we're given in the report but make sure that we're we're doing so fairly
um alder provost thank you sir i want to direct a question to the city attorney
if possible once he's done talking to you i'm sorry i wanted to direct my question to
attorney letting please take your question thank you um so i'm just curious as the the granting of
this particular license is that is this one of those things that this goes without saying that
we also expect them to have the necessary permits in place before they're able to actually use the
liquor license so we give them the license but they can't just be standing outside where the
store would be selling beer alcohol right or how to can you explain it right and i understand
there hasn't been health department approval yet to maybe some other things um but that is correct
any any other required um licenses or permits would have to be obtained before they can actually
engage in business okay i so i will speak against the motion to defer considering that they wouldn't
be able to utilize the license until those other conditions were met anyway thank you
all right thank you the grocery store portion of this really appeals to me because we do have
so many areas in our city that are in a food desert so if this is the intent of this would be an actual
mini grocery store i i don't know if there are any plans that exist to show us you know what they
would be selling that it would be actually leaning towards that and not you know just a a convenience
store with some groceries in it i would love to see that and then of course the ability for someone
to come in maybe to sip and shop or something we would see that later on down the line but the
grocery store i would really like to see that to go forward and get all of those permits
together for that portion and then have us come back and address the other portion of this that
way the community is fully served under wider thank you i just want to clarify what the city
clerk in regards to the liquor license or any license they have to comply with all the
requirements before they get any license and can operate correct city clerk yes so the clerk's
office does not actually hand the permit over until every department sign office good so even if it
is approved at council we will still hold it until every other department has been signed on so i
also have a question for the city attorney there's a little history i believe with this application
this applicant i think this was he had a plan a and now this is plan b can you kind of apprise
the council before i speak to the deferment regarding the history as to his application
well i'm aware that the business owner sought a zoning change as part of the process this area is
zoned b1 which would not permit off premises sale of packaged goods also would not permit
the sale of any tobacco products in b1 or in b2 excuse me in b1 i'm sorry so there was a request
for change to b2 that was denied by planning a heritage design commission so it's a b1 district
if the license is granted then he wouldn't be able to sell off premises or tobacco again to be clear
and the class b request here is of course so he can essentially operate a restaurant
thank you so i want to first speak on speak against deferring the item in hope that the next
motion would be to uphold the request of the ultimate of the district to grant this license
and i want to explain why um you're all familiar with the indian motorcycle shop um previous to be
in the indian motorcycle shop it was the historic district market and in a situation very similar
to danny um an individual came and invested a lot a lot of money a lot of blood sweat and tears
into renovating a building bringing in a grocery store a deli a butchers a farmer's market
state your point of order all their phone thank you stichare um we are speaking supposed to be
speaking on whether or not to defer this into the proper permits i made i can appreciate the
comments but i think that might be more appropriate for the original motion at hand and not this
your point is well taken the motion before us is to defer the item on the wider if you wanted to
say those comments tell me the main motion that would be appropriate then i believe that i want
to appeal the ruling of the chair i believe that my comments are perfectly related to the deferment
because it for an individual to move forward making a huge financial investment in a building
they really need to know or they stand in this community as far as being able to move forward
with their investment so my comments were related to what it takes for an individual
to make an investment in something like this so why i'm speaking against the so all the
whiteners appeal the ruling of the chair that i concurred with all the pebones point of order
that the comments of all the whitener were not to remain to the motion before us which is the
which is the emotion to defer this item um when the clerk calls your name please vote
as you wish on deferral all their land all their demark all their harmin all their pevone
all their freezer
is perhaps to clarify the what what a yes vote in a no vote means a yes vote would uphold the ruling
of the chair a no vote would overrule the ruling of the chair is that correct correct wait what
no well we'll just to be clear sorry let me back up what we are voting right now is
all the whiner challenged the ruling of the chair i withdraw my objection okay
all the whiner if you could please keep your comments remain to the motion before us please
i have no further comments on the defer deferment okay anyone else would like to comment on the
motion to defer um please put your name in the queue all their accordion
I was going to speak on something really but that's uh I do support it uh not not being
deferred uh I've said this before about uh business owners coming and investing money and now here's
a business here's a business owner uh of course when we look at all the the premises report and
all the things that might go against the bar there is not because the business hasn't opened yet
and so we have to wait on the license and so you know are we open for business are we partially
open for business or what are we doing here so here's here here's I'm supporting the order of the
district uh order land and her distance her district uh she knows the owners uh the other
thing is that place has been sitting there for a long long long time with nothing happening there
and so uh the the business owner christianos even though unfortunately I have not I pass by a lot
of times when I work that mixture and I have never been in there before but I've never seen
people hanging out either I've been on PSL I was on PSL for three years never seen the names come
across for any type of violation or anything so I would be in favor of uh not deferring this and
taking action tonight. By way of information the question was posed what um what planning
heritage design did on this issue for the rezoning um and just want to clarify for people we don't
zone by exception on the planning heritage commission in other words we wouldn't change
a zoning ordinance just for one property otherwise well you have a zoning ordinance but there were
concerns about whether or not such a thing would be injurious to the neighborhood it is just a
little more than a block away from the new mental health facility that's being built by the county
which is meant to address aota related issues it is an area that has a high degree of density of
liquor license is already and is very close to halo so for those reasons it was considered
something that would be injurious to the neighborhood to be able to do that so those were some of the
reasons why it was denied by um by planning heritage design I made the the rare exception
of going to a PSL meeting and making that known there I appreciate the tension that's here but
I just want to make sure people understood why planning and heritage and design took the action
that I did otherwise I just wanted to quickly say that I'd be against um deferring simply because
the we've already kind of believed at this point but the permits I mean we always conditionally
approve and all the permits have to be done so I don't think that has a bearing on a reason to
defer. Alder de Merck. I'm going to be in favor of deferring it um I I want to do what the alder
of that district steams is right um as a former resident of that district um it it was utilized as
a a tool place but I think this would be a great opportunity for the location to have a grocery
store um we have a lot of food deserts in this city and this is a great way to somewhat help
out that situation. Uh the closest grocery store I see on the map is piggywiggly and that's a mile
and a half away from the area so I I'm going to move forward to the deferment.
Alder P. Thank you. I would also be in support of deferring the item as others have said especially
the altar for the district. I know Mr. Patel and actually a customer so I know he does a great
business and his current store has not had any problems or has been a positive force in the
neighborhood. Thank you. Alder Herman. I just want to I guess it's a question I the um to the
original sponsor so by deferring it we are saying that they can start the business portion the
grocery store portion of it. The additional licensee regarding liquor or whatever that is on hold
they need to hold off on that piece until they get the necessary things in order for all of that
but we are fine just just go over exactly how they benefit who benefits from a deferment at this
time. Alder Jorgensen would you yield to that question? I do uh and I have to do uh inception
with this but I think ultimately I'm in the queue I would want to hear from the actual altar if
she had supported it because my intention behind it was I was seeing a head nod at looking to see if
I was making a motion by deferring and really the intention was we don't want to hold up having
the grocery store portion go through allowing them to go and continue getting their permits for the
grocery store. Um if you those of you may not remember uh Woodman's was another grocery store
they actually went and did all of their additional permits first and then the last thing they came
to get was the the liquor license so it was that um that was the intention that we weren't holding
them up. However I guess from my intention if the intent of of the alder from the district was to
have a decision tonight on it um I would support uh voting no on my motion to have a decision tonight
so I not to answer your question with a question when I think the the real intent was to follow
along with what the alder of the 11th was looking to do which was either not hold up the project to
keep the grocery store going or if we want a final decision tonight we can do that as well.
So it's a question for the city attorney if we prove the liquor license does that
guarantee that there will be a grocery store?
No it just guarantees the liquor license would be issued.
Thank you. Um alder Wagner. You have a question for the city attorney to kind of clarify the
comments made by the mayor regarding the action taken by the planning heritage committee.
Do we still have a zoning board of review? Is there any board of appeals? Of appeals? We do.
We still have that and would their jurisdiction be if if he was denied a zoning change from a B1
to a B2 where he could sell packaged liquor he could have gone to the zoning board of review.
No that's not what the zoning board of appeals is for. It's for variances and different kinds of zoning
decisions. It's not changing the zoning of or an exception. You can make an exception like when I
want to put my pool in the front of my yard I went to the zoning board of appeals and said I don't
have room in the back and I put it toward the front. Right those kinds of things and he could have done
that with the not changing the zoning that doesn't that's the PhD. But he could have an exception to
the he could have asked for a variance though correct. He could have asked for a variance.
So the reason I asked that question on the deferral and I don't want to muddy the water
but I think his preference would have been to have a small section of his store to sell
packaged liquor for people to take away because he couldn't do that then he went to plan B which
was this little restaurant to be inside the store. So I don't want to muddy the water.
Yes I have a question for the attorney but first I wanted to make another comment when that property
is vacant I have to deal with neighborhood enhancement because a lot of people come and dump their
garbage there and then the city has to go and clean it out. So to have an owner there would be a lot
better and my question for the attorney is with the application that they put in for the little
small liquor license to drink inside and the grocery and deli if they don't go with their plan
then what what would be the alternative. I mean if we granted them the license and then they just
kept that but I mean you said they don't have to open the store. Well if a liquor license
we're talking about a big class B license here if that's issued they could operate that kind of a
business consistent with this zoning district which is in in store on premises sale of alcohol by the
class. But the business plan says seating for 12. Well that's true I mean would have
consistent with the business plan that's presented. So they'd have to be consistent with that.
At least with respect to the restaurant part of it. Thank you. I just want to
there's no guarantee with granting this liquor license that there will be a grocery store in
this establishment. Right because they would not with this license and the
zoning be able to sell packaged goods to go off premises and I guess I think that's
one thing a grocery store might do but there wouldn't be a lot to do that.
There's also discussion at the community level about whether or not you could have
and still have food stamps at a grocery store that serves liquor in a restaurant capacity.
Did we get clarity on that? Sure. Attorney Poplin researched it. There's no reason that
we're aware of it would not be able to otherwise qualify for that but it's up to the business
to apply to get qualified as a federal program. Other questions? Comments? Again what is before
us is not the motion itself. It is an emotion to defer this item when the order drove into.
I guess I would I would just ask if Alderland yields to a question. Alderland will yield to a
question. She says yes please take your question. With my intent of doing this would you are you
in favor of deferring or would you rather there be a final decision tonight on it? I would rather
the final decision come tonight. Okay then I will be voting no on the motion. Does your
seconder withdraw? Sorry are you with? Okay.
All right so the motion has been made and seconded it belongs to the it is on the the floor right
now to vote on that item so the motion before us is to defer this item when the clerk calls your
name please vote as you wish. Sure again so it is before us is the item to defer so this is not
the motion on whether or not to grant the license only whether or not we would defer the item until
a future date when more clarity is granted on permits or grocery stores or whatever clarity
people are looking for. So when the clerk calls your name all we're voting on isn't whether or not
to grant the license what we are voting on is whether or not to defer this item and tell a
future date to get more information. When the clerk calls your name please vote as you wish.
Alderland. Alder DeMark.
Alder Harmon. Alder Pabone. Alder Frazier. No. Alder Weiss.
Alder Jorgensen. No. Alder Widener. No. Alder Horton. No. Alder Hodges. No. Alder Allen. No. Alder Pete.
Ten nose two eyes. The motion to defer fails. This now brings us back to the main motion which was
whether or not to grant the license at this location. We had more people in the queue before on that
if you would like to speak to that primary motion now would be the appropriate time to do that.
Alder Pabone. Thank you Mr. Mayor. So I would support Alderland in this particular instance
because it is her district but I would say more that we can get into hypotheticals about whether or
not I mean does this guarantee that there's going to be some type of grocery store in that area or
not but I also do think that there's something to be said that this particular person has been
in this community for a really really long time. I mean I've been in Cristianos I've been around
that area friends you know that go way way way back. So I think that any of the businesses that
present a dual you know purpose for their business could do something like that hypothetically but I
also think that there are things in place that we can do to rectify situations like that so
I would support the Alder and in her wish for us to approve this license. Thank you.
Alder Frazier.
Alder Frazier you have the floor. Yeah so I this is this is a weird moment for it's not a weird it
it's very how can I say I'm troubled because I want to be consistent I want to be fair I want
to support Alderland because I respect her and she knows her district best. However Kamo
wanted the biggest things that one of the biggest issues that I consistently almost two years being
on the council get beat up on is the amount of places in our city that sells beer alcohol
packaged on package you name it people are upset and or people are concerned and you know we
you know the reason why I voted not to defer is because the issue still stands on where
on the amount of places in our city that sells liquor and I think that that is a question
and a conversation that really needs to be had as to how are we permitting these places
and so I'm really conflicted with this issue I want to see the development I want to see the
grocery store I want to see the deli all of the good things I come with it is just do we actually
need another place considering there are multiple places around that area that that readily have
alcohol available do we want to see another place in close vicinity that sells the same thing
and so that's what I'm wrestling with I agree with the development I just having a hard time
agreeing and supporting the license itself otherwise um is it within the thousand feet
you know the proximity you mentioned that and I know that that's one of the criteria you we use
as a committee it's just the geographic limitation applies to class a licenses this is a class b
we don't have a geographic limitation the ordinances for class bs thank you
oh just as a point of information I know we've been working on the zoning code rewrite we did the
comprehensive plan with the city pulled over a thousand members of the community and the things
that they said they wanted to see less of were more bars liquor stores and payday loans and so
in the draft of that rewrite both classifications of liquor of liquor licenses would fall within
that geographic restriction although it does not currently. Alderman.
Thank you uh in Kenosha on at the intersection of 22nd in Washington there is
there is a restaurant it is a restaurant convenience store with you know the sales chips and things
like that but they have a hot cold deli which surprisingly has really good food and good portions
and then it does sell some alcohol that is not packaged you know you drink it there so
I've seen this mixed use space in real time but it does not advertise itself as a grocery store
and I think you know what really again attracts me is anything that works to combat our food
deserts in the city every scene so just try I don't want this to be a place that says
you know I can make this be more palatable to the people that have to vote on this if I say
I'm going to attach some food to this license and so when you say that there isn't any guarantee
that kind of concerns me because the guarantee would come from the person who's asking for this
license and they would be able to stand in front of us and say this is what this grocery store is
going to look like and how it is going to serve the community and then oh by the way they can
sit while they shop so I'm not seeing that and I don't know if we've seen anything that you
would suggest that it will be that so that there is my concern because I always am going to
respect the other in the district but I would hope that someone would be able to give this
information because if this is just cosplaying gaslighting then the community would not be
best served especially in the community location where it is going to be you've heard that it's
going to be in a very vulnerable part of our community it should lead first with the things
that are going to best serve the community and anything else after that would be an add-on.
All right. Thank you Mr. Mayor. I would say that the altar of the district does have a petition
that has been signed by people. We have seen numerous people here tonight speak in favor of this
which has been the guiding line for some of my colleagues with past issues with how many people
show up to speak as well whether that be a committee and or here in the council. I will say
that to all their Allen's point we do have in the business plan where it says Mr. Patel intends to
operate a combination grocery store in tavern that sells groceries deli sandwiches hot food and
alcohol by the glass which is in the old location of Ace Hardware on Taylor Avenue. So there is
some stuff in there especially with the with the business plan that has been approved or at least
you know gone through. So I do think that's a distinction to make there as well as
again back to my earlier point they've been here they've they've shown that they're going to be
invested and I know that doesn't always have to come with a license to sell alcohol but again I
have to go back with with all the land and the work that her and her constituents have done
to to try to plead their case. So I know that the we are speaking right now on the motion to deny
but I would like to make a motion to approve the license.
I don't think that's an order. I think what we have it is an order to do is not. Yeah it's not
an order at this time. So if the motion to deny the license fails then a subsequent motion after
that to approve would be in order. Okay thank you.
I'll go to Mark.
Again this is this is going to be a grocery store slash deli with some alcohol. I can understand
if it's like Michelle the bar down the street or my wife first bar I get that I understand that
but this is a thing. The plan that they put together is a well thought plan.
It's better than other plans that were presented to the council in the past where it was handwritten
where my seven year old niece would have done a better job of writing it.
I'm still going to be voting for this so I'm going to be voting no for denial.
All right thank you. I have always said that I will support the
order on a decision that they made because they should understand their district
and I've also always said that I'm going to follow policies that are written because as
soon as we go out start going outside of policies and what we have voted on and established by
people then we get in a situation that at a federal level people are just doing what they
want to do and I'm following any rules and got people putting people into positions.
So I love this deep and rich energetic conversation. I'm stuck between a rock and a
hard place because both of those things I really do support but I think that a business plan can
be well-meaning and I believe that an owner can have the best public business attitude vibe
energy at where they are for years and years but they haven't been in a situation where they've
been in that location serving alcohol with people who will drink it at that location
get in a car and leave and people within that area come in and drink it at silly and have
and a lot of different things in that location that is close to other alcohol selling places
and schools and halos where there are people who are actually in halo doing programs to prevent
addictions to alcohol and addictions to other drugs and then to be within a vicinity that they
could actually get that with a dinner and a sandwich you know it kind of you know I support the
committee and the reasons behind why they said that that that this license should not be granted
at this time.
Alder Jorgensen and then we'll go to Alder Frazier. I guess I just have a question to
I think this may be the city attorney but maybe the committee who talked with the owner on it
looking through the business plan it looks like it's $50,000 a month estimated sale from alcoholic
beverages and 30,000 from food is that consistent with what the proposal was for like a sip and
shop or I just I know what's been described as like a sip oil shop kind of a thing is that what
we see from like other applications. Are you directing a question at the city? Yeah I guess
I will go to the city attorney unless somebody from the committee could give a little more
background and I just the reason I'm going through the business plan is it sounds like if that's
what we're relying on doing sure that there's a grocery store I just want to make sure that
we're all set with it that it be 50,000 a month in alcohol and 30,000 from food is that is that
consistent with other. If it's all right other Jorgensen I'd like to direct your question to
the city clerk. This is a unique application and that typically when we get the sales it is
either a class A convenience store or a class B bar. I'm not aware of any full class Bs in the
city of Racine that have a grocery store and a bar so is it typical of other establishments?
I don't really have any data to go off of. And so then I guess this portion of it would be for
the city attorney because it sounds like everyone has agreement that we'd love a grocery store there.
If this main motion were to fail in a subsequent motion were to be made, is there anything that
can be made in that subsequent motion to somehow ensure that there would be a grocery store
component with this?
The premise of the description anticipates there will be a grocery store. That's always an issue with
liquor licenses to make sure. The alcohol beverage part of this is just a small bar
according to the description, a small bar along the back wall of the grocery store. There will
be a small bar with seating its tools for 12 people, four top tables, two couches, alcohol,
B store and served in the front of the bar. The alcohol beverage part of the premises is
just this deli counter that's at the back. The city clerk had something she wanted to add here.
If the council so wished you could limit the premise description to only allow the sales
storage and serving of alcohol to be within a certain location of the floor plan.
That might get to the point of what the council is attempting to do.
I guess I think the intent was more of to ensure that there is the grocery store
component to it. I think it's more so reading the room that there's a high interest in getting
this approved for the grocery store component but there's some hesitancy on making sure that that
would be a part of it. To ensure that we can get this approved I'm just trying to see if the city
attorney has something that can be included in a potential subsequent motion to maybe alleviate
those concerns around it no longer having the grocery store component to it.
Well the premises description includes a grocery store so I think if you approve this
on the condition that a grocery store is also opened that is what is anticipated in the application.
So I guess to hear that right for those that may be concerned around approving it that the
grocery store may not come to fruition. Any subsequent motion could be made approval with
the condition that the business plan be followed requiring a grocery store.
Yes. So I think that there hopefully should alleviate a lot of the concerns around this because
we have someone who's in the community we can require that the grocery store component be there
and so the fear that it would just basically become a bar and there'd be no longer any food
there that would go against what the new motion would be and so we would be requiring that there
be a grocery store as part of this. I think if you make the motion conditioned upon that that can
be enforced. Well so since we're still in the main motion I guess we'll hold off on that but
I'm seeing some heads-knot of that may be a route to go with this.
All right, did you want to speak? Did you want to speak one more time? You were in the queue and
then it disappeared. Kel, I think I'll reserve my comments for the next motion. Should there be one?
I'm going to do something that I don't usually do which is yield the chair to the
council president to make comments on the motion.
The chair recognizes the maker. All right, thanks very much. It's an unusual thing for me to come
down and offer comments on a particular application but I did want to put it in a larger context
and express concerns about it and where it came through for the planning heritage and design
and I just don't want to confuse the desire that all of us have for grocery stores to address
the food deserts as being the same thing as granting a liquor license because they're not the same
thing. Again this came through planning heritage and design for a variance on a specific site to
do this. I will just reiterate when we look at conditional use permits and we look at zoning
changes one of the things we consider under the statutes is whether or not the activity would be
this is the statutory language injurious to the neighborhood. This is already an area with a
lot of density for liquor license as it is. It is also the same neighborhood that Halo is in
at the workforce development center is in and at the new mental health facility which is built
to address mental illness a big part of which or a substantial part of which will be mental
health but also alcohol and other drug abuse related issues. So I am concerned about the number
of liquor licenses we have in the city broadly. Again if you look at the comprehensive plan
and serving members of this community they want fewer bars they want fewer liquor stores and they
want fewer payday loans and pawn shops. They want more quality of life things like what we're doing
with the King Center like what we're doing with the parks at Lakeview and less of those things.
There is no shortage of places to go to buy alcohol in this community and in this particular
neighborhood you do not have to go far to find several places to buy alcohol so people will not
go without if their desire is to purchase alcohol. So adding one more liquor license in a highly
dense area that already has a number of liquor license already in a community where we get many
complaints on an ongoing basis on how the Halo residents interact in the community and what
happens during the day and the concerns about alcohol consumption already to me one more liquor
license would be one more injurious additional concern that I would have about putting this
particular location in that space. I'm a hundred percent for the grocery store and the deli that
sounds amazing. At PS&L when the applicant was asked would you still open the grocery store if
you can get the license he said yes then he was asked again by one of the elders and then he said
well that's not a fair question that's not a fair question. I'm sure he would prefer the liquor
license to help with sales. I don't put grudge him as a small business owner wanting to do that
but I want to be really clear about the concerns that I have. I debated about whether or not to
even come down here because people that I usually agree with I think you're going to vote against
me on this and that's okay but as the mayor who's been trying to turn some of these issues around
around homelessness and around density in the neighborhoods and big areas of concern that we
hear in this place is I just feel like I would be remiss if I didn't raise those issues. I don't
enjoy disagreeing with people I usually agree with. I certainly respect the alder of the district
in her assessment that this would be a good addition but I really think we've got to separate
the request for a grocery store which we all love which I think would pass unanimously and
whether there's a necessity for yet another liquor license in a neighborhood that is saturated
with them already and has people with real risk issues in that space. So my plea to you all is
to reconsider doing the liquor license let's let's get them going with the grocery store and if
it's actually open and running maybe we want to look at it another year and reconsider but I don't
think this is the space where we should do another liquor license and I think we've got to stop
equating liquor licenses with grocery stores if it's a real grocery store and it opens and it's
that way let's let's look at it but I feel like it's the justification for another liquor license
that I don't think that we need in that neighborhood again I may lose on this but I feel like I would
be really remiss given the issues we're dealing on on redevelopment and tension points in the
community to not say that out loud thank you alder whitener thank you I guess if you're wrong long
enough history does repeat itself the comments I was going to make earlier was in regards to
another initiative just like what is being proposed at 1950 Taylor Avenue and that was the market
the historic district market that was on 6th Street where the Indian motorcycle shop is now I remember
when they developed they had a liquor license in that they had a grocery store they had a small
area where they served wine and that went with the deli they had a big farmers market the back
they had a butcher shop they had the deli and that business failed because there is such a small
margin of profit on just a grocery store if you look at any of the grocery stores in and around
we're seeing every single one sells liquor to go which this operation first wanted to do but wasn't
able to so then he went to plan B it's great to say yeah we we just want a grocery store but
it's almost impossible to have a business with just a grocery store you have to make a profit
and you can't make a profit with just a a grocery store I hope that the council will vote down
denying this license and reconsider there are enough protections in place and and we know
dandy he's been in operation for 15 years he's got a grocery store a block and a half away from
halo he's not had any incidents whatsoever the grocery store he intends to open as a block away
and this is exactly what we want for our immigrants when they come to our country they start a small
business and then they expand so I hope that the council will vote down the denial of this license
and support him in support business he is the one that's taking the financial risk and it's great
the things that the mayor talks about what the government is doing what the city is doing to
improve things it's a different story when it's your own money that that you're putting out there
investing in risking like mr. Patel is doing with this business so I hope the council will
support and encourage other businesses in receipt because believe me our reputation as not being
business friendly it has a ripple effect and like I said I hope we support this man being able to
expand his business and treat it like any other grocery store that we would
I thank you the chair recognizes all their Allen okay thank you so I did make the comment earlier
about new deserts shopping and sipping and you know the vulnerability of the place in the city
where this license is going to exist we cannot look at this like apples and oranges I don't know
if the business that all the wider was describing earlier you know even I'm familiar with the Indian
motorcycle place and the bar that's on top of it now all of what you've described but if it was on
6th Street that is not where we're talking about right now so that community is completely different
the vulnerability over there is completely different and access to food is different
so I guess while we have grocery stores that are grocery stores determined by the square footage
that is allowed for food and the square footage in the store that is allowed for alcohol we know
that that is what really determines that it is a grocery store we have quick trips now that are
in existence that are just as little mini they're doing the best in your little spaces right now
they've grown actually from just a little yogurt that you could purchase to now you go in there
and actually get a shopping cart and you can do actual grocery shopping so in my mind when I'm
looking and hearing you know we're going to have a grocery store I'm really looking for the grocery
store and someone's saying well we're going to have alcohol not again trying to just tag on
grocery store because it sounds good we do really have to be cognizant of the people that we are
serving and yes if if that person is really interested in having a grocery store they will
just like other businesses that I've said this about if that's really what you want and you really
want to preach to the choir about how you want to be the answer to the food desert then you're
going to have a grocery store no matter what it's sort of like how johnson's is using their money to
do their golf course and they say they're not going to receive anything back from that that is
something you're doing for the community so we really have to be aware of how we are serving
different areas in our community and what that means and when you go into a poor challenged
neighborhood and you introduce things that are easy addictions you have to be responsible for
those outcomes and we are responsible for finances we are responsible for what the city looks like
we are responsible for how we message to our children and to our families and so it doesn't
mean that everyone that comes along says they want to spend money in our community
that we have to say all gold is not good gold so we have to be aware and this is a very hard
struggle for me because what really is holding me back is I can't really see this as a grocery
store because I see this as a tagline and that's why i'm asking what does the grocery store portion
look like because if it's leading with that that takes away from some of the sting in that location
if it's leading with alcohol with a banana then it's not serving the community in a specific way
there are people in the queue but there has been a motion to call the question is there
there's a second to call the question um I will say all their pobon was the only other one in the
queue so it sounds like he's he's taking himself out so that does empty the queue um so with that
we're back to the main motion now which is to approve the recommendation from the committee
which was to deny so a yes vote denies the application a no vote would bring us right back here again
where we would be in search of a new motion then so with that i'll have the clerk open the roll
oh yes
alderland
alder demark
alder harman
alder pobon
alder frasier
he died
alder wyse
alder jorgensen apologies you're chairing
alder wydener
alder horton
alder hodges
alder alan
alder peep
that would be four eyes six nose one abstain
i see you are you
point of information is what okay if you want to push your button i can recognize you
oops
would you state your point of information please thank you sir just want to clarify an
app set and i'm being abstain well abstaining also counts in the negative right
so like a no
it's on but i'm not sure
mine oh mine's not on oh there we go okay
the microphone lights we're on but we uh i would ask the city attorney i think to weigh in on that
if you have you push your button
in this instance it does have the effect of a no-boating
all right so that means that the the motion then fails
and so we are on the search then for a new motion i see alder pebone practically leaping
out of his chair to be next yes thank you mr chair i would motion to approve conditionally
upon them following the business plan that they'll have a grocery store as the attorney alluded to
earlier second you have the the clerk i would like to ask a quick question i just want to clarify
because there is such thing as a conditional license yes are you approved you're approving a
or significant making on the condition that they have the grocery store as follow the business plan
at the grocery store okay so under the condition that they have it before they are issued their
liquor license or under that it is a conditional permit and they have six months before they have
to come back to the psl committee to approve or deny the form of liquor license sorry the term
it the verbiage means two things so i want to make sure could the attorney advise on the best sure
so there is by ordinance a conditional grant of license that require it gives the applicant six
months to complete work obtain all necessary permits and start operating under the license
okay the council may also impose reasonable conditions for the issuance of a license
so you could do either or both well i guess i wouldn't suggest both if you're going to grant
a grant a conditional license so they have to complete work obtain permits and be operating
within six months that's one thing you could also issue the license upon the condition that
you follow the business plan including operating a grocery store that which one is number number
two adoption number two and so if i could i think just to clarify for everyone because there was
a second but if we can have the clerk just clarify what what that means to you then as far as when
it's being issued and and what the plan would be and then if somebody were to make a second on it
that would be it would be clarified we've two of them were combined i think thank you for the
question so defining a grocery store is extremely hard by anything that i have in the clerk's office
if you were to approve a conditional license it would go back before the public safety and
licensing committee to determine if what has been done is good enough so it takes the condition
off of me as the clerk to decide yes this is a grocery store or no it's not and puts it back in
the hands of the council okay legislative 101 so i like that i like the ability because i think
that kind of goes along with some of the concerns raised or if we're seeing these issues arise
more than at that time the public safety and licensing committee would have the ability to act
so i would motion to approve conditionally where they would have to come back in six months before
ps&l committee so make a motion to essentially approve a conditional license for the applicant
under the terms that they would come back before the committee in six months to see if it's being
extended approved or denied yes attorney let me can i clarify if that works from
that works and i think if we can also reference the particular ordinance section
which is section 6-41 of the receipt code of ordinances which provides for this
okay so if the so if the chair could just clarify for everyone because that's a lot
I'm motioning to have a conditional approval of the license if i can state i think it would be
a motion to approve a conditional grant of the license pursuant to section 6-41 of the receipt
code of ordinances that has the six-month provision in some mode second all right so we have a
motion from alder pabone second from originally alder harman was so all their
freezer she'll yield to all their freezer so motion from alder pabone second from alder
freezer the queue is empty if you were looking to speak on this new motion um now would be the
time otherwise we'll go back to alder pabone to speak to your emotion i have it just at this
point i think we've all said a lot so i would just call the question well alder
freezer did raise his hand um as the maker of the motion though i would have the floor right
so i would be have the ability to call question correct yes you can call the question i would
call question that all right so the motion has been made uh to call the question by alder
alder harman did second day um so it's been motioned in second to call the question although i do see
alder freezer took his hand down um you know yeah it's fine i don't have to speak to it okay
then there was no one else in the queue so i think we can save a a round of yeses to do it um that
would bring us back to the motion and just to clarify it's a motion for a conditional license
that would grant it they would have to come back in six months with there's the specific
ordinance that was cited to do that but the the description of it is they would have to come back
and then it would be uh the public safety and licensing committee deciding if what was done
meets with their definition of the grocery store would be and then they would be at that time
deciding whether to extend it uh or not so i see a lot of head knots from both sides i think i
think it's something up good so with that the clerk will open the roll then alder land
alder demark alder herman alder pebone alder freezer aye alder wyce alder george alder whitener
alder horton alder hodges alder allen alder peat eleven eyes zero nose okay with that the
motion carries uh looks like we will do a little bit of musical chairs
okay um alder peat did you have any other items for separate consideration on your report
no i do not then without objection the remainder of these items will go to the consent agenda
and then i will move on to president jorgensen on the final item which is a direct referral
due to timeliness um alder jorgensen uh have you had any requests for separate consideration on
this item i did not then without objection that will be placed on the consent agenda and we will
move to the consent agenda alder jorgensen would you like to make a motion regarding the consent
agenda i move to approve the consent agenda the motion is second to approve the consent agenda
all those in favor please say aye aye opposed the motion carries we now move on to common
council announcements which are limited to recognition of city residents and employees
memorials and non-political community events discussion matters related to governmental
business is prohibited alder alan will begin with you thank you last night was national night out
it was a wonderful opportunity to spend time with our community i want to thank
lutheran resurrection church and the mobile station on spring street for signing up to
participate i would like to thank all of our our service provider staff police fire
and everyone who coordinated the event once again it was a moment for community i also would like
everyone to know that on this coming saturday alder demarc and i are hosting the very first
back to school event that will take place in lockwood park and we will have a whole fun
and day i need everyone to kind of send out good to do energy to the universe so that it does not
rain on saturday but everyone is invited and again it's at lockwood park and we'll have most of the
afternoon depending on rain if it does rain we will be giving away gift cards to the schools
in the area to give to their students for school supplies after school starts thank you alder
hermit thank you i also want to give a very special thank you awesome job for everyone that
participated in national night out neighborhood watch committee and the cop house the cop
meet street cop house they always do a great job of including the community
regular neighbors people within the areas blocks but all over a scene can come and they always host
and do a really really good job so thank you meet street cop house and all the staff that
participate in the national night out there we're going thank you mr mare i would just like to say
that um well pre congratulations to my niece katana and her classmates they will be holding a production
of matilda park high school over the weekend friday saturday and sunday they're still tickets
available um also i went to the county fair that was a lot of funds a lot of familiar faces there
so that was great um tomorrow is my one of my nieces faith her birthday so happy birthday
to her my birthday is also this month but we'll skip past that and then um the national night
out was fantastic i was able to attend monument square and the one on by douglas park and it was
really great to see the community out and people actually smiling and laughing and just enjoying
themselves especially the kids um there was you know no fighting no no craziness that was going on
uh we had the you know first responders come out officer pits in particular with the pursuing
police department very friendly very accommodating like the kids put stickers on his car that he went
and promptly took off afterward but it was very great just to see that so thank you to raseenia
bird watch uh to make that possible and all the sponsors and everyone else that came out to make
it really special so thank you thank you all for going any other announcements under the mark
um i also want to echo uh for a night out yesterday um it was it was a great day it was beautiful it
was nice um it was a nice day for the community to come together as one uh that's what we really
need in this city is everyone to come together and celebrate the the us um the other thing that i
want to put out there is the um market um the farmer market um over by festival hall uh it's
open every Saturday so hope to see you all there great uh i do you just want to give a shout out
to national night out it was a great event i started at monument square and then went over to gold
metal lofts uh in all the davis district um was luckily be joined by josh glessing who's the
president milwaukee bucks who actually grew up just by gold metal lofts and got to reconnect with
some of his old neighbors uh and just meeting with some of the constituents of ours who live in gold
metal lofts and how important uh that affordable housing opportunity is for them to be in that
neighborhood and how delighted they are met a couple people who went through our adult high school
program who are there and and now employed in nursing so it's really affirming to see some
of our government initiatives coming to fruit and just doing what national night is out is supposed
to do which is to connect police and firefighters and other city officials with neighbors uh and
celebrate our community so thanks to everybody who participated in the dozens events that we have
around the community there's no way you can get to all of them there's so many of them so thank
you to everybody who participated i see no other items so at this moment i would entertain a motion
to adjourn uh many motions and seconds to adjourn all those in favor say aye opposed ayes have it we are