Administrative Policy Committee Meeting

ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES August 19, 2025 at 5:30 PM Kronenwetter Municipal Center - 1582 Kronenwetter Drive Board Room (Lower Level) 1. CALL MEETING TO ORDER A. Pledge of Allegiance B. Roll Call PRESENT CHAIRPERSON David Baker VICE-CHAIR Guy Fredel Mary Solheim Sandi Sorensen Sean Dumais Other Board Members Present Trustee Ken Charneski Staff Present Pete Wegner John Jacobs 2. ANNOUNCEMENT OF CLOSED SESSION 3. PUBLIC COMMENT Please be advised per State Statute Section 19.84(2), information will be received from the public. It is the policy of this Village that Public Comment will take no longer than 15 minutes with a three-minute time period, per person, with time extension per the Chief Presiding Officer’s discretion. Be further advised that there may be limited discussion on the information received, however, no action will be taken under public comments. Ken Charneski 2604 16th Rd. submitted written comment to be included in minutes. CLOSED SESSION Consideration of motion to convene into closed session pursuant to Wis. Stat. 19.85 (1)( c ) for consideration of employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility – to wit Administrator Interviews Consideration of motion to convene into closed session pursuant to Wis. Stat. 19.85 (1)(e) for consideration of deliberation or negotiating the purchase of public properties, the investing of public funds- to wit Potential Acquisition of Property Motion by Solheim/Sorensen to convene into closed session. Motion carried 5:0 by roll call. RECONVENE OPEN SESSION Consideration of motion to reconvene into open session. Motion by Fredel/Sorensen to reconvene into open session. Motion carried 5:0 by voice vote. ACTION AFTER CLOSED SESSION Motion by Fredel/Sorensen to recommend Village Board consider James Davel for Village Administrator position. Motion carried 5:0 by roll call. 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES- DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION  C. July 22, 2025 Motion by Solheim/Dumais to accept Jully 22nd and August 5th minutes as presented. Motion carried 5:0 by voice vote. D. August 5, 2025 5. REPORTS AND DISCUSSIONS E. Finance Director Report Finance director John Jacobs discusses his finance report. He also discusses preliminary financial information the Village is receiving out of Madison (state) numbers. 6. NEW BUSINESS- DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION F. Proposed Cost Centers for 2026 Budget Motion by Dumais/Solheim to accept and send proposed cost center proposal to Village Board for approval. Motion carried 5:0 by roll call. G. Code of Conduct and Complaint Procedure Review Dumais discusses concerns with the current code of conduct and other attached policies and suggests that APC should ask the board to direct APC to do a review on all policies and ordinances that pertain to complaints. Motion by Dumais/Sorensen to request Village Board repeal code of conduct ordinance 115-13 and instruct APC to review all policy and ordinances related to complaint procedures. Motion carried 5:- by voice vote. 7. CONSIDERATION OF ITEMS FOR FUTURE AGENDA Well capacity numbers from water department, Preliminary numbers for TID #2 payoff, and TID #1 report update. 8. NEXT MEETING: September 16, 2025 9. ADJOURNMENT Motion by Solheim/Fredel to Adjourn. Motion carried 5:0 by voice vote. Meeting Adjourn at 9:09PM NOTE: Requests from persons with disabilities who need assistance to participate in this meeting or hearing should be made at least 24 hours in advance to the Village Clerk’s office at (715) 693-4200 during business hours. Posted: 08/15/2025 Kronenwetter Municipal Center and www.kronenwetter.org Faxed: WAOW, WSAU, City Pages, Mosinee Times | Emailed: Wausau Daily Herald, WSAW, WAOW, Mosinee Times, Wausau Pilot and Review, City Pages Minutes Drafted By: Sarah Fisher-Account Clerk Ken Charneski 2604 16th Rd Kronenwetter. APC public input Aug 19, 2025 Committee members. At the July 22nd APC meeting you recommended the lowering of standards for the annual budget from detailed line items to so-called "cost centers". Mr. Baker and Jacobs proposed this change under presupposition and speculation that an excessive number of budget amendments would happen, and that they would interfere with staff comfort and efficiency. In other words they were fixing something that was not shown to be broken, at the expense of financial transparency, public trust, and accountability. In effect, APC recommended circumventing long-standing budget accountability principles by transferring much of the budget-changing authority from elected officials to administrative employees by generalizing the budget and keeping line item details off-budget. In the past, the concept and ongoing practice of staff arbitrarily overriding public-approved budget details has continually caused problems, overspending and other controversy in the 8 years that I have been a trustee. The $5000 automatic overspending allowance further makes the term "budget accountability" even more of a hollow thought. Unfortunately, the Board has voted to approve APC's recommendation before even knowing what these "cost centers" would look like. To paraphrase Luke 16:11 "If you can't be trusted with small things (like line item limits), how can you be trusted with larger things" (like a "cost center" limits or a department budget). "Watch the pennies, and the dollars will take care of themselves", to quote Ben Franklin. These are just two basic concepts of management and accountability that have been undermined with the changes made here so far. The issue of defining the "cost centers", has now come to APC for a recommendation. If you were to compare these cost centers to the 2025 budget, you would see that some of them cover a range of line items far too wide in scope to allow at-will rearranging of the appropriations. I do not agree with throwing the line-item budget accountability under the bus for mere convenience and under a false pretext, but since that has already been accomplished, I would hope and suggest that the "cost center" designation be narrowly defined by the committee to mitigate the disparate use of funds in a way that was not approved by the Board. At a minimum, can we have the sub-cost centers listed on pages 11-15 of the packet be designated as "cost centers"? The second issue that I see in the packet is Item 9 G "Code of Conduct and Complaint Procedure Review". Here again we have a proposed problem or conflict that for the most part does not exist, and we see a very liberal leap of logic by interpreting Chapter 14-21 provisions as a way to undermine or change another (CLIPP) committee's responsibilities. The Village can move forward more successfully with the real issues we have before us, if everyone stays in their lane and can avoid creating unnecessary conflict like this. In my opinion Policy GEN-012 works fine with the referenced complaint (attached) and just as it was originally intended to apply to residents and staff alike. It is also completely compatible with a reasonable interpretation of Chapter 14-21, and does not relate at all to the Code of Conduct (ethics violations). GEN-012 was created as a means to reinforce public trust by addressing public complaints in a direct, transparent manner. Sidetracking a taxpayer's complaint like this can easily be perceived by the public as a stonewalling tactic. If it has merit CLIPP can make sure it is addressed, and if not, then dismiss it.  Ordinance 115-13 Code of Conduct however, is another story and a big red flag all by itself. I think that since it is part of this agenda item, an extensive rewrite or complete replacement of this ordinance should be a priority for this committee. Thanks for your attention in these two matters.