Finance Committee Meeting #
This took place earlier in the day (3pm) and lasted 2.5 hours. Two major topics took the bulk of that time.
- 2026 Jan-Jun budget to actual report showed us forecasting an underspend of 1.4% for the year. As with all budgets, there are plenty of puts and takes, but the net looks healthy. The biggest dollar amount favorabilities are personnel vacancies in Police and Fire. We budget for full staffing, so when we have turnover, we’re underspending a little each month a position stays open.
- TID Policy: we spent a solid hour on a page and a half. I thought it was a good discussion with healthy debate. My goals with the policy are below.
- Clearly define our goals for use of tax increment financing.
- Communicate clearly to developers what we will and won’t consider. No more surprises.
- Create guardrails that balance our financial risk.
- Protect current residents from the levy increases generated by TID construction.
- Create a discipline that prevents us from waiving our own requirements.
I’m not letting go on TID Policy. You, the residents, were getting stomped on by our previous practices. Complex problems are complex because they have many variables. One of those variables in the TID discussion is resident impact. We were making the problem easier by just taking that out of the equation, rationalizing it with “state law says grow via construction or wither and die.” One variable – construction % – makes the problem really simple. Time to embrace the complexity of the problem and keep resident impact in the equation.
Board Meeting #
We made quick work of it. Easy decisions:
- approved the employee pay scale changes for 2027
- approved the Village of Raymond 7 Mile Fair storage building
- approved park use agreement for Gorney Park by a soccer club
- approved a contract with Wisconsin Humane Society, for everything but large animals. We have more research to do on how to cover large animals. The Humane Society isn’t equipped to deal with a horse, for example, and we have a few of those in the village.
- approved checks
Then the budget printouts were delivered.
Then a couple of other minor things and done.
CoW #
Not so quick work.
The first interesting part for residents on the CoW agenda was the employee survey results. There were plenty of negative comments, and the largest number were focused on the Board.
I can still blame the previous guy, right? No, in all seriousness, I’ve always taken these surveys seriously. We have to be careful not to let them just confirm our previously held narrative, but we also have to have an open mind about what they are trying to say. We’ll talk to people and understand what’s driving the negative perception of the Board. Then we’ll fix it.
Then a healthy discussion on defining a vision for Waters Edge (TID 5 lakefront parcel we own). Or more appropriately, what forum and who will do the legwork to get a vision presented to the board for approval? We decided to create a committee. I know, I know, I was just ranting about them, but in this case it makes sense given the magnitude of the issue. The committee will be made up of 2 staff members, 3 board members, and 3 residents. One of the residents will live in another area of the village, not near the property. This is a whole village issue. We’ve spent millions on it. We own it so we can determine its use. What we do with it can have aesthetic and financial impact. The village website should soon have a way to express interest in being a part of the committee. We need people ready to do some work and ready to live with the formality of a committee. All meetings, btw, will be open to the public and public comment will be allowed, so even if you aren’t selected to be on the committee, you can still join the meetings and offer opinions.
We also directed the staff to cease spending money on Waters Edge until the board adopts a vision for the property. If you’ve been following the irritable comments in meetings about legal expense, this addresses some of that noise.
Then there was some lengthy board opinion gathering for the Comprehensive Plan. It’s a really important document, and board input is really important, but we made the audience sit through some dry material.
Then a discussion about a village wide traffic analysis. We decided not to do one at this time.
Ugh #
It was one of those meetings that went really long (2hrs) and you aren’t sure why but can’t point to anything that could have gone faster. Oh well, it happens.