Village Board

1 VILLAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING MINUTES 2 Tuesday, April 29, 2025 3 (Approved Version) 4 5 Agenda Item No. 1. Call to Order and Declaration of Quorum 6 The April 29, 2025 meeting of the Sister Bay Village Board of Trustees was called to order by Village 7 President Nate Bell at 4:00 P.M. Those present included Trustees Denise Bhirdo, Louise Howson, and 8 Kurt Harff, Chad Kodanko and Brigid White. Patrice Champeau arrived at 5:40 PM. 9 10 Staff: Village Administrator Julie Schmelzer, Utilities Director Megan Barnes, Village Attorney Randy 11 Nesbitt and Clerk Heidi Teich 12 13 Others: Rick Dahlstrom 14 15 Agenda Item No. 2. Approve Agenda 16 A motion was made by Howson, seconded by Kodanko that the Agenda for the April 29, 2025 meeting of 17 the Village Board of Trustees be approved as amended to address Agenda Item No. 5 first at the 18 meeting. Motion carried – All ayes. 19 20 Agenda Item No. 3. Approve Minutes 21 A motion was made by Bhirdo, seconded by Kodanko that the minutes of the April 15, 2025 meeting of 22 the Village Board of Trustees be approved as amended per Bhirdo’s notations. Motion carried – All ayes. 23 24 Agenda Item No. 5. Executive Session 25 a) Consider a motion to convene into Closed Session pursuant to Wis. Stats., §19.85(1)(g) to confer with 26 legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering oral or legal advice concerning strategy to 27 be adopted by the body with respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved: Utility 28 Claim of Town of Liberty Grove, Hunter and Jessica Clinton, et al Lawsuit, Adam & Brigid White 29 Lawsuit 30 At 4:04 P.M., a motion was made by Howson seconded by Bhirdo to convene into Closed Session pursuant 31 to Wis. Stats., §19.85(1)(g) as noted in the agenda item above. 32 33 A roll call vote was taken on the motion, and the members voted in the following fashion: 34 35 Bhirdo – aye; Harff – aye; Howson – aye; Kodanko – aye; White – Aye; Bell – aye 36 37 Motion carried – all ayes 38 39 It was noted that at 4:58 PM, Trustee White recused herself from the closed session and returned at 5:30 40 PM. 41 42 Agenda Item No. 6. Motion to reconvene into Open Session 43 At 5:30 P.M. a motion was made Bell, seconded by Howson to reconvene into open session. Again, a roll 44 call vote was taken and the members voted in the following fashion: 45 46 Bhirdo – aye; Harff – aye; Howson – aye; Kodanko – aye; White – Aye; Bell – aye  Minutes of the April 29, 2025 Meeting of the Village Board of Trustees - approved 1 2 Motion carried – all ayes. 3 4 Agenda Item No. 7. Motion for Action, if Appropriate 5 No motions were made as a result of the Closed Session. 6 7 Agenda Item No. 4. Discussion: Legal Counsel Summary of Legal Obligations of Village Trustees 8 Nesbitt distributed a document to the trustees which outlined some of the primary duties and 9 responsibilities of elected officials. During the discussion that followed, the trustees were invited to ask 10 questions on such items as the role of the public officials, prohibited conduct, personal liability, open 11 meetings laws, closed sessions, walking quorums, and recusing oneself from discussion during a 12 meeting. Nesbitt referred the trustees to Wis. Stats. §19.59 for more information on the Code of Ethics. 13 Bell also reminded trustees that he should be contacted first before any individual trustee reaches out 14 to the village attorney with questions. 15 16 Agenda Item No. 5. Executive Session cont’d 17 b) Consider a motion to convene into Closed Session pursuant to Wis. Stats., §19.85(1)(c) to consider 18 employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee 19 over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility: Discussion of Village 20 Administrator compensation and benefits. 21 At 6:00 P.M., a motion was made by Kodanko seconded by White to convene into Closed Session pursuant 22 to Wis. Stats., §19.85(1)(c) as noted in the agenda item above. 23 24 A roll call vote was taken on the motion, and the members voted in the following fashion: 25 26 Bhirdo – aye; Champeau – aye; Harff – aye; Howson – aye; Kodanko – aye; White – aye; Bell – aye 27 28 Motion carried. 29 30 Agenda Item No. 6. Motion to reconvene into Open Session 31 At 7:26 P.M. a motion was made Bell, seconded by White to reconvene into open session. Again, a roll 32 call vote was taken and the members voted in the following fashion: 33 34 Bhirdo – aye; Champeau – aye; Harff – aye; Howson – aye; Kodanko; White – aye; Bell – aye 35 36 Motion carried. 37 38 The board took a five minute recess. 39 40 Agenda Item No. 7. Motion for Action, if Appropriate 41 A motion was made by Bell, seconded by Champeau to authorize Trustees Bell and Bhirdo to review the 42 agreement prepared by Attorney Nesbitt as discussed in closed session. Motion carried – all ayes. 43 44 Agenda Item No. 8. Discussion/Action Items 45 a) Change of Agent Request; Boathouse Properties Sister Bay LLC; Matthew Peterson 46 Boathouse Properties Sister Bay LLC, doing business as Boathouse on the Bay and located at 10716 N 47 Bay Shore Dr, has requested a change in designated agent for liquor licensing. Matthew Peterson has 2  Minutes of the April 29, 2025 Meeting of the Village Board of Trustees - approved 1 agreed to the appointment, has met all the required conditions, and provided the appropriate 2 application, which was included in the meeting packet for the trustees to review. 3 4 A motion was made by Howson, seconded by Kodanko to approve the appointment of Matthew Peterson 5 as Agent for Boathouse Properties Sister Bay LLC, dba Boathouse on the Bay, located at 10716 N Bay 6 Shore Drive as presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 7 8 b) Amend Bylaws 9 President Bell has recommended two changes to the Village of Sister Bay Committee/Commission 10 Bylaws and Rules to add stakeholders to the Finance Committee and increase the number of trustees 11 appointed to serve on the Housing Committee. Bhirdo informed the board that a resolution is needed 12 to amend the bylaws, and applicable changes to the Village of Sister Bay Board of Trustees Bylaws will 13 need to be made as well. 14 15 During discussion on the proposed changes, Bhirdo voiced opposition to adding additional members to 16 the Finance Committee, particularly after the past year in which trustees spent considerable time and 17 expense training on the budget and financial matters. She noted that the public is always welcome to 18 attend meetings and provide input, and having two citizens on the committee won’t change the overall 19 public perspective of what the village does with the budget. 20 21 Kodanko spoke in support of increasing the membership of all committee to at least five members, and 22 those members should all be compensated for their services. 23 24 Bell shared his belief that committees comprised of more than just trustees bring more knowledge and 25 experience to the committee and improve the public perception of the board. While the request is only 26 to change the Finance Committee now, he would propose a future change to add stakeholders to the 27 Personnel Committee as well. 28 29 Additional discussion on this agenda item will be held at the regular meeting of the Village Board in May 30 when accompanied by the appropriate resolutions to affect the changes. 31 32 c) Committee Appointments 33 President Bell prepared a list of proposed committee appointments which were distributed to the 34 members prior to the meeting. During discussion on his recommendations, it was noted that 35 appointments to the Ad Hoc Green Tier Legacy Community Committee, Personnel Committee, Ad Hoc 36 Village Hall Planning Task Force, Plan Commission, Housing Committee and Zoning Board of Appeals will 37 need to be revisited at the May 20, 2025 Village Board meeting. In addition, Bhirdo asked to read a 38 letter of correspondence from Laurel Harff in which Harff voiced concern over the removal of Trustee 39 Champeau from the Plan Commission to be replaced by a new trustee who does not have Champeau’s 40 knowledge of the village or experience in zoning matters. 41 42 A motion was made by Bell, seconded by Bhirdo to approve the appointment of Chad Kodanko to the 43 Door County Coastal Byways as presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 44 45 A motion was made by Bell, seconded by Champeau to approve the appointments of Louise Howsn, Julie 46 Schmelzer and Ellie Soderberg-Guger to the Door County Tourism Zone Commission as presented. 47 Motion carried – all ayes. 48 3  Minutes of the April 29, 2025 Meeting of the Village Board of Trustees - approved 1 A motion was made by Bell, seconded by Kodanko to approve the appointments of Nate Bell (Chair) and 2 Denise Bhirdo to the Emergency Management Committee as presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 3 4 A motion was made by Kodanko, seconded by White to approve the appointments of Denise Bhirdo 5 (Chair), Brigid White and Louise Howson to the Finance Committee as presented. Motion carried – all 6 ayes. 7 8 A motion was made by Bhirdo, seconded by Champeau to approve the appointments of Kurt Harff and 9 Chad Kodanko to the Fire Board as presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 10 11 A motion was made by Bhirdo, seconded by Harff to approve the appointment of Patrice Champeau to 12 the Sister Bay Historical Society as presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 13 14 A motion was made by Bhirdo, seconded by Kodanko to approve the appointments of Denise Bhirdo 15 (Chair), Jacki Kieckhefer, Sally Pfeifer and Erin Peddle to the Holiday Lighting Task Force as presented. 16 Motion carried – all ayes. 17 18 A motion was made by Bhirdo, seconded by Kodanko to approve the appointment of Kurt Harff to the 19 Sister Bay/Liberty Grove Library Commission as presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 20 21 A motion was made by Kodanko, seconded by Champeau to approve the appointments of Brigid White 22 (Chair), Chad Kodanko, Patrice Champeau, Pat Duffy and Kevin Grant to the Marina Committee as 23 presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 24 25 A motion was made by Bell, seconded by Bhirdo to approve the appointments of Nate Bell (Chair), Don 26 Cox, Thor Johnson and Mike Laszkiewicz to the Ad Hoc Parking Task Force as presented. Motion carried 27 – all ayes. 28 29 A motion was made by Kodanko, seconded by Harff to approve the appointments of Louise Howson 30 (Chair), Denise Bhirdo, Nate Bell, Jerry Ahrens and Mike Laszkiewicz to the Parks, Property & Streets 31 Committee as presented. Motion carried, 6-1 with Bhirdo opposed. 32 33 A motion was made by Bell, seconded by Kodanko to approve the appointments of Louise Howson (Chair) 34 and Kurt Harff to the Personnel Committee as presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 35 36 A motion was made by Howson, seconded by Kodanko to approve the appointment of Kurt Harff to the 37 SBAA Board of Directors as presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 38 39 A motion was made by Kodanko, seconded by White to approve the appointment of Denise Bhirdo to the 40 TIF Joint Review Board as presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 41 42 A motion was made by Howson, seconded by Kodanko to approve the appointments of Denise Bhirdo 43 (Chair), Nate Bell and Kurt Harff to the Utilities Committee as presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 44 45 A motion was made by Kodanko, seconded by Champeau to approve the appointments of Dick Burress 46 (Chair), Ken Church, Kurt Harff, Chris Hecht, Ron Kane and Brigid White to the Ad Hoc Administration 47 Building Review Task Force as presented and amended to include an appointment for Patrice Champeau, 48 which was erroneously omitted from the listing. Motion carried – all ayes. 4  Minutes of the April 29, 2025 Meeting of the Village Board of Trustees - approved 1 2 A motion was made by Bhirdo, seconded by Harff to approve the appointments of Terry Kelly, Pat 3 Wisner, Deb Duren, Liz Hecht and Hristo Blagoev to the Zoning Board of Appeals with the determination 4 of a Chair to be made at a later date. Motion carried – all ayes. 5 6 Agenda Item No. 9. Matters to be placed on a future agenda or referred to a committee, official or 7 employee 8 It was the consensus of the committee that the following items be included on a future board meeting 9 agenda: 10 • Amending Board/Committee Bylaws 11 • Resolution to extend the Ad Hoc Village Hall Planning Task Force 12 • Resolution to modify the Housing Committee composition and make appointments 13 • Resolution to modify the Finance Committee composition and make appointments 14 • Committee appointments (Personnel, Ad Hoc Green Tier Legacy Community, Village Hall Planning 15 Task Force, Plan Commission, Zoning Board of Appeals) 16 17 The next meeting of the Village Board of Trustees will take place on Tuesday, May 20, 2025 at 6:00 P.M. 18 19 Agenda Item No. 11 Adjourn 20 At 8:17 P.M. a motion was made by Howson, seconded by Kodanko to adjourn the April 29, 2025 meeting 21 of the Village Board of Trustees. Motion carried – all ayes. 22 23 Respectfully submitted, 24 25 Heidi Teich, 26 Village Clerk 5