Menomonie City Council approves budget, bus agreement - cuts nonprofit subsidies

CITY OF MENOMONIE
COUNCIL MEETING
CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS
7:00 PM
WEDNESDAY – November 20, 2024
AGENDA
Pledge of Allegiance
1. Roll Call & Special Recognitions
2. Approval of Minutes - The minutes were approved by voice vote.
3. Public Hearings
a. Proposed Ordinance 2024-16, Establishing the 2025 General Fund Operating Budget and
Tax Levy.

Lorene Vedder spoke for the responsibility to care for the disabled and disadvantaged.

A request was made to fund the Humane Society and Hmong Friendship Center, despite the recommendations in the packet. 

Donna Collins asked for support for the Senior Center, including reducing the 25% cut in its subsidy. 

Lukas Chase spoke in support of the subsidies for nonprofits.

Rebecca Kilde suggested that the council not think of these as subsidies to the nonprofits, but as an investment in the city.

Further testimony is in the meeting video. Further requests were made to not cut the allocations for nonprofits.

Jeff Frawley (the purchaser of 300 Crescent Street) asked to have TID funding for the renovation of the building to improve the current exterior of the building, which is an eyesore. This is related to item 6c. 

4. Public Comments

Becca Schoenburn spoke on item 6b and supported the proposed operating plan. 
5. Unfinished Business
a. Dunn County Transit Agreement – discussion and possible action.

This is essentially a change from making a donation to Dunn County Transit to making them a contractor for three years, which will make it a more stable agreement in the long term. The motion was passed by unanimous roll-call vote.

b. Proposed Ordinance 2024-16, Establishing the 2025 General Fund Operating Budget and Tax
Levy – discussion and possible adoption.

The city has had a 30 million dollar valuation decrease. Eric Atkinson spoke on the issue. There is a tax rate worksheet in the attached packet.  The change in valuation is primarily due to changes in the personal property tax laws. The city developed three options for dealing with this and they chose to lower the subsidies to city nonprofits.  Staff has recommended option B, which will increase the mill rate by 4.04%. An interesting discussion followed about how the city would have to raise taxes to qualify for more state funding for expenditure restraint. 

Board member Yonko proposed a motion funding the nonprofit groups at their 2024 request levels (except for the Ludington Guard Band) but otherwise keeping the proposed budget options.  She argued largely that this is a large decrease that the groups were not expecting and would impact their operations. This is a $23,000 increase and would raise the mill rate for this year to a level that will be determined and reported at the next meeting. A lively discussion followed on other options.

The mayor suggested the possibility of the city having a grant process that could be instituted in the middle of the year so that there would be clear parameters for the grant money and it could be passed in the middle of the year after the city was clearer on where they stand on contingency expenses. 

A roll call vote was taken and the proposal to keep the subsidies at the 2024 levels failed.

The ordinance was introduced as written. The first and second readings were waived, and the budget was approved using option b.

6. New Business
a. Modify award of Phelan Park Playground Equipment contract from Northland Recreation to
PlayPower LT Farmington, Inc. – discussion and possible action.

This is simply a change to the name of the company (awarding it to the parent company rather than the company that made the bid). The change of name was introduced and approved unanimously.

b. Proposed Downtown LLC Operation Plan – discussion and possible action.

The proposal is included in the meeting packet. The plan was approved unanimously.

c. Proposed development agreement with FISHIN MAGICIAN, LLC (300 Crescent Street
Menomonie, WI) – discussion and possible action.

This is a proposal to use TID money to help to refurbish the outside of this building (which has had many different businesses, initially a gas station) as the owner will be investing a large amount of money to start a new business downtown.  This will be a fly-fishing supply shop. The agreement was approved unanimously.

7. Budget Transfers

The budget transfer of $700 is  in the packet. It was approved unanimously.

8. Mayor’s Report

The mayor spoke about the many improvements going on in Menomonie that will attract more tourists. 

He also recently toured the Walmart Distribution Center and was impressed with the large number of employees and their new automation and robots. 

The mayor reminded people that calendar parking rules are in effect.

9. Communications and Miscellaneous Business

City council meetings will go back to Mondays for the next meeting.

Candidates can start circulating papers for the spring election.

10. Claims

The revised claims list was approved unanimously. 
11. Licenses
a. Normal license list – discussion and possible action.

The list of licenses was approved. 

12. Adjourn 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 PM.
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