WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:03.160 Five o'clock having arrived on this Wednesday, September 9th 00:03.360 --> 00:10.640 It's my honor to call to order this special council meeting for the city state of the city address for 2026 00:11.200 --> 00:15.840 First item of business before we begin the presentation is the Pledge of Allegiance of the flag 00:15.840 --> 00:18.320 If you could please join as you are able and join me in the pledge 00:19.760 --> 00:27.120 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation 00:27.120 --> 00:31.200 Under our indivisible with liberty and justice for all 00:38.080 --> 00:42.800 President Jorgensen members of the city council and my fellow residents of Racine 00:43.280 --> 00:47.040 Thank you for joining me tonight for the 2026 state of the city 00:47.840 --> 00:52.160 We have a great deal to be proud of this year. We have invested in our schools 00:52.320 --> 00:58.240 We have invested in our neighborhoods. We have invested in the safety and well-being of the people who live here 00:58.880 --> 01:04.080 And yet there are dark clouds on the horizon because we are still working to free ourselves from disinvestment 01:04.560 --> 01:07.600 And from the constraints placed on us by the state and federal governments 01:08.560 --> 01:12.960 So let me begin with the good news and it begins where it should always begin with our kids 01:14.000 --> 01:18.160 This is the time of year when parents rejoice at sending their children back to school 01:18.720 --> 01:23.680 With the school year underway, I would be remiss not to celebrate what our public schools mean to this community 01:24.080 --> 01:28.160 The strength of this city is tied directly to the strength of its public schools 01:28.800 --> 01:31.920 So to the teachers and staff who came back to work this fall 01:32.560 --> 01:33.760 Thank you 01:33.760 --> 01:39.600 Your dedication will shape this community's future because you are shaping our most precious resource our children 01:40.400 --> 01:45.360 I am proud to say that all three of my children attend case high school in Racine unified schools 01:45.840 --> 01:49.840 They are thriving and they will be ready for adulthood because of our USD 01:50.480 --> 01:55.360 Because of its IB program and because of the teachers who inspire them each in every single day 01:56.160 --> 01:58.560 This fall many of our students returned 01:59.280 --> 02:04.160 To new or renovated classrooms because the voters of this community approved a school referendum 02:04.960 --> 02:10.880 Just before the year began. I was glad to join ribbon cuttings at case high school goodland school and waterwood school 02:11.440 --> 02:13.520 And this spring during one of our clean sweeps 02:13.920 --> 02:19.200 We worked alongside students at the new red apple school to plant flowers for neighbors up and down the block 02:20.160 --> 02:27.840 If you ever want proof that voting matters remember this a referendum that invests hundreds of millions of dollars in rebuilding and repairing our schools 02:28.480 --> 02:30.480 Past by five votes 02:30.720 --> 02:36.320 Not five percent but literally five votes out of tens of thousands of votes cast 02:37.040 --> 02:39.680 Democracy matters and every vote counts 02:40.400 --> 02:44.400 Good schools do more than prepare young people to be workers and citizens 02:45.120 --> 02:48.560 They anchor neighborhoods and they are central to the revival of this city 02:49.520 --> 02:54.800 Neighborhood reinvestment and repair remain a top priority for us alongside the school construction 02:55.120 --> 02:59.840 The city has taken on project after project to strengthen the places our residents call home 03:00.640 --> 03:05.760 We launched our clean sweep program bringing city crews and city resources into one neighborhood at a time 03:06.240 --> 03:12.320 To trim trees repair sidewalks fill potholes all the way bulky waste and handout smoke detectors 03:12.880 --> 03:18.960 The repairs matter but what matters more is that the residents of those neighborhoods feel seen and appreciated 03:19.680 --> 03:24.160 Through our home repair and enhancement grants. We have delivered more than 1,100 grants of $10,000 03:25.200 --> 03:28.080 To each homeowner across each to homeowners across the city 03:28.640 --> 03:33.280 We're using federal funds to build houses with habitat for humanity in three neighborhoods 03:33.840 --> 03:42.160 And we launched we're seeing rehabbed and ready putting a $25,000 grant in place to bring a vacant house up to code and sold to a homeowner 03:43.600 --> 03:49.600 All of it is working home ownership and we're seeing has climbed from approximately 51 percent to 62 percent 03:50.320 --> 03:55.280 Prichard park apartments will add 266 new market rate units to the city 03:56.080 --> 04:01.360 We have taken an all of the above approach to housing our goal is more home ownership 04:01.680 --> 04:03.680 But our commitment is to every resident 04:04.800 --> 04:09.120 At every income level rich or poor owner and renter alike 04:09.840 --> 04:12.480 We are especially excited about the lincoln king neighborhood 04:13.040 --> 04:16.240 A grant from governor evers allowed us to build 33 town homes 04:16.720 --> 04:21.200 Which will set self for half of what they cost us to build putting home ownership within reach 04:21.840 --> 04:28.080 In that neighborhood. We rehabilitated eight more homes in that neighborhood and we're building two other new homes with habitat 04:28.160 --> 04:29.200 Humanity 04:29.200 --> 04:34.800 As proud as we are of the housing we may be proud or still of the new king center now under construction 04:35.360 --> 04:43.280 It opens early next year and it will offer not only new recreation space, but medical dental and behavioral health care services 04:43.920 --> 04:48.000 Our public health department will be housed there as well so that we can improve community health 04:48.480 --> 04:52.960 From inside the community it will be the first net zero building in the city 04:53.440 --> 04:57.280 And more than 20 percent of the hours worked on that site went to receive residents 04:58.080 --> 05:00.080 This project will be transformative 05:00.880 --> 05:05.120 For the neighborhood for the kids and families at julie and tama school right next door 05:05.680 --> 05:07.680 And frankly for the entire city 05:07.760 --> 05:11.840 My thanks to the staff and community members who gave so much to make it real 05:12.320 --> 05:16.960 And to president biden senator ballwin and governor evers for directing the funding our way 05:18.000 --> 05:22.160 We're continuing to pull unsafe led service lines out of our drinking water system 05:22.720 --> 05:28.240 More than 1200 residents have signed off on replacing lines this year and close to 400 are already complete 05:28.960 --> 05:34.160 My administration made a promise to remove those lines and with resources from the infrastructure law 05:34.480 --> 05:37.440 We secured a 40 million dollar grant to get there faster 05:38.640 --> 05:44.320 Ride our bus system now has a solar ray helping to power our bus fleet thanks to a grant from senator ballwin 05:46.080 --> 05:47.920 And then there's passenger rail 05:47.920 --> 05:51.920 Passenger rail has been talked about in southeast wisconsin for decades 05:52.480 --> 05:55.520 Sometimes they say it's an idea that's so good. It cannot go away 05:56.240 --> 06:02.480 When the bipartisan infrastructure law passed a few years ago, it set aside billions of dollars for new rail corridors 06:02.960 --> 06:08.960 To be ready for it racene joint konosha cut a hay and milwaukee informing an intergovernmental body 06:09.440 --> 06:11.440 the mark rail commission 06:12.160 --> 06:14.560 To be able to apply for those funds when they become available 06:14.880 --> 06:21.120 It will connect downtown racene to the airport to racene and konosha and to the metro line on to chicago 06:21.600 --> 06:29.440 If it comes to fruition, it could spark more than a billion dollars in investment and put tens of thousands of residents within reach of a job 06:30.480 --> 06:32.000 At lakeview park 06:32.000 --> 06:37.200 We installed new playground equipment. I have not driven past it without seeing children playing 06:37.840 --> 06:42.480 I am glad we could give this community something that has brought so much joy to so many families 06:43.280 --> 06:50.960 And gun violence and homicides are declining as our police self-crime and our department of community safety works upstream to interrupt its causes 06:52.080 --> 06:57.360 Alongside our investment in schools housing and community centers. We are investing in people 06:57.840 --> 07:01.360 Helping our residents into jobs that can support a family 07:01.920 --> 07:10.080 Our youth employment program our police and fire cadet program and our commercial drivers license training have opened city jobs to more city residents 07:10.640 --> 07:15.200 More than half the people we hired this year live in racene or moved here to take the job 07:15.840 --> 07:20.880 Compare that with the roughly one third of our current workforce who live in the city and you can measure that progress 07:21.440 --> 07:27.760 I want to single out the police department and the library in particular who made big strides in this regard in the last two years 07:29.200 --> 07:35.600 We also celebrated america's 250th birthday with a wonderful event on july 5th and a time capsule to mark the occasion 07:36.240 --> 07:43.280 We added a new sister city of branford, ontario and we welcome visits from our sister city mayors in mexico and france 07:43.840 --> 07:48.080 All in all there is much to be proud of in the progress that this city is making 07:49.360 --> 07:55.200 Most serious threats we face come from outside these walls, but before I turn to them there are two manners here at home 07:55.760 --> 07:57.760 That I hope this council will address 07:58.080 --> 08:02.640 The first very recently we discussed which is flocked cameras and their security around it 08:03.280 --> 08:04.640 Let me be clear 08:04.640 --> 08:10.080 As I said yesterday, I will not include funding for flocked cameras in the budget that I produce on october 5th 08:10.640 --> 08:13.840 Serious concerns have been raised by residents of this city 08:14.240 --> 08:22.720 By more than two two dozen wisconsin law enforcement agencies that have already terminated their flocked contracts and by a growing number of jurisdictions across the country 08:23.280 --> 08:25.280 We should end this relationship now 08:25.760 --> 08:27.280 Give our police time 08:27.280 --> 08:31.360 They need to close pending investigations, but do not wait until the end of the year 08:32.160 --> 08:36.480 Every week we wait diminishes the community's trust and confidence in its own city 08:37.280 --> 08:39.360 On tuesday the council faces a choice 08:40.080 --> 08:43.840 Stand with the residents and their legitimate privacy concerns or flock 08:44.640 --> 08:46.480 I hope this council stands with the community 08:47.760 --> 08:50.880 The second is the pace at which the council hands out liquor licenses 08:51.520 --> 08:56.160 Our community survey told us plainly what residents want in our comprehensive plans 08:56.560 --> 09:01.200 They want fewer bars fewer liquor stores fewer pawn shops and fewer payday lenders 09:01.760 --> 09:04.640 And yet we go on handing out liquor licenses like their jelly beans 09:05.280 --> 09:11.200 You can buy alcohol in every city in the neighborhood in this city. This is not about prohibition 09:11.760 --> 09:13.760 It's about concentration 09:13.760 --> 09:19.200 License is clustered in low-income neighborhoods next door to homeless services down the street from schools 09:20.000 --> 09:27.440 No community in america has ever revitalized itself with an abundance of liquor stores in neighborhood neighborhoods that were once redlined 09:27.680 --> 09:31.760 Not a single one what those neighborhoods need is decent housing 09:32.400 --> 09:34.400 good jobs human services 09:34.800 --> 09:36.800 Strong schools and public safety 09:37.680 --> 09:42.800 And it is not only how many licenses we grant it is how slowly we hold bad ones accountable 09:43.360 --> 09:49.360 Some establishments drain substantial police resources month after month and degrade the quality of life 09:49.760 --> 09:51.680 For everyone living around them 09:51.680 --> 09:52.800 For the good of this city 09:52.800 --> 09:56.240 I am asking the council to take a harder look at the license holders 09:56.240 --> 10:00.960 We already have and a more skeptical look at every new application that comes before you 10:03.920 --> 10:05.680 Now to the threats from beyond our borders 10:06.480 --> 10:09.840 So i'm going to start by saying I am proud of what this administration our staff 10:10.320 --> 10:12.880 Our partners and our community members have accomplished this year 10:12.880 --> 10:17.920 But make no mistake if our relationship with the state and federal government does not change 10:18.400 --> 10:20.400 The city is in for a dire future 10:21.360 --> 10:27.680 For more than two decades the state legislature has squeezed cities financially while forbidding us from acting on our own behalf 10:28.240 --> 10:32.560 That is not an accident is the product of 20 years of republican dominance in madison 10:33.680 --> 10:39.680 As state funding fell the cost of cities city services shifted onto property taxpayers 10:40.160 --> 10:45.200 Our state aid was cut or held flat for nearly all of that time until the last two years 10:45.920 --> 10:50.880 Consider this had funding to receive simply kept pace with inflation over those two decades 10:51.360 --> 10:56.240 This city would have received more than 300 million dollars more than it did 10:57.360 --> 10:59.360 Imagine what that would mean for the city 10:59.680 --> 11:06.000 For the services we could provide for the buildings that need to be rebuilt and for the property tax bill of every family in this room 11:06.800 --> 11:15.920 President bine's american rescue plan brought this city benefit many benefits and chief amongst them was helping closing our structural deficit with the american rescue plan 11:16.720 --> 11:20.560 This is the last year we can use those dollars going forward 11:21.200 --> 11:26.640 We will need partners in the legislature who understand what is at stake when local government is starved 11:27.440 --> 11:30.800 And alongside the defunding has come the assault on local control 11:31.440 --> 11:36.720 More than 100 bills have been signed into the law to strip authority from communities like ours housing 11:37.280 --> 11:43.680 Raising the minimum wage rules for landlords inspections of our rental units labor standards public health standards 11:44.080 --> 11:50.800 Infrastructure environmental protection on subject after subject. We are preempted prohibited or banned 11:52.080 --> 11:58.080 Local control was once a wisconsin virtue it gave communities the freedom to govern themselves 11:58.240 --> 12:02.640 And let municipalities be laboratories of democracy testing ideas 12:03.120 --> 12:06.560 Learning what works and sharing what we learned with one another 12:07.520 --> 12:13.440 Again, here are just a few things that we can't even consider we are not allowed to consider raising the weight rate minimum wage 12:14.000 --> 12:17.520 We can't further regulating rental housing any further than we already do 12:18.080 --> 12:24.560 We're not allowed to inspect group homes. We can't set building code standards that exceed the state standard regardless of our safety concerns 12:24.880 --> 12:29.680 We can't set labor standards for any of the projects that we have here beyond a certain point 12:30.640 --> 12:35.520 In this semi quincentennial year, there are many ways the state could honor the american experiment 12:36.160 --> 12:40.480 The best of them would be to give cities back the freedom to govern themselves 12:42.400 --> 12:46.560 Of all the concerns I have raised tonight, it is the federal government that worries me the most 12:47.040 --> 12:52.080 And that is because what is under assault there is not simply our budget. It's our values 12:53.040 --> 12:58.080 Racine is a diverse community home to many immigrant groups races and ethnicities 12:58.720 --> 13:02.800 That is one of our greatest strengths, but we now find ourselves in distress 13:03.680 --> 13:07.600 Watching an assault on our democratic values that comes not from some foreign adversary 13:08.000 --> 13:10.000 But from our own federal government 13:10.400 --> 13:14.960 The climate of fear that ice has created in our immigrant community has done a reparable harm 13:15.600 --> 13:22.000 Unfair trade tariffs are raising prices here at home and alienating allies. We have stood beside for generations 13:22.880 --> 13:26.960 Food assistance and health care benefits have been cut for our most vulnerable neighbors 13:27.920 --> 13:36.320 Efforts to open city jobs and programs to underrepresented people are being dismantled along with diversity equity and inclusion work of every kind 13:37.360 --> 13:42.320 Currently interference with male imbalance puts free and fair elections themselves in jeopardy 13:43.200 --> 13:48.800 That's a short list drawn from a long one. These actions do not merely wound us as a matter of policy 13:49.280 --> 13:51.280 The offend our most basic values 13:52.400 --> 13:56.400 President trump has been one of the most negative and disruptive forces of my lifetime 13:57.040 --> 14:01.360 But he is one man and in a little more than two years. He will be out of office 14:02.560 --> 14:04.640 What must not lead with him is our principles 14:05.200 --> 14:11.200 We must summon the strength the whole fast to opportunity to fairness and justice for all americans 14:11.600 --> 14:15.280 Whatever their background because if the state of the city is to be strong 14:16.000 --> 14:19.120 We have to come through the next two years with our principles intact 14:20.160 --> 14:26.800 Sometimes showing up for america means having the resolve to stand up to america when it is acting unjustly 14:27.600 --> 14:30.320 That is why in this 250th year. I still hold 14:30.720 --> 14:35.840 Enormous hope for our future as a city and as a country and it is why I will end with this 14:36.560 --> 14:40.160 The way to fix what is wrong with us is to embrace what is right about us 14:40.640 --> 14:46.480 And I can think of no clear act of fidelity to what is right about this country than to exercise your right to vote 14:47.120 --> 14:50.560 Whether you agree with everything I said here tonight or none of it 14:50.960 --> 14:57.680 I hope every person listening will show fidelity to the country. I believe we all love by voting in a free and fair election 14:58.720 --> 15:03.200 In two days, we will mark the 25th anniversary of the tax of september 11th 2001 15:03.920 --> 15:08.960 Let us remember the sacrifice of those we lost and let us recommit ourselves to this project of ours 15:09.360 --> 15:11.200 The longest-serving democracy of the world 15:12.080 --> 15:18.000 Thank you. God bless each and every one of you. God bless for seeing and god bless the united states of america 15:18.560 --> 15:20.560 Good night 15:36.000 --> 15:38.000 At this time I would entertain a motion to adjourn 15:39.040 --> 15:41.920 Some motion to adjourn in multiple seconds. All those in favor, please say aye 15:42.560 --> 15:44.560 Opposed we are