New Village Board President Bob Soderberg's First Meeting. Gracious & Informative President's Report. "The Tone Starts At The Top."

Significant Changes To Slate Of Committees, Commissions and Boards. New Line Up For Plan Commission. Resident Gets His CUP Fee Returned Re Grosenick. Meeting Less Than Two Hours.

From agenda packet.

4/21/2025 Village Board Meeting agenda here.

Min 14:15 meeting starts here. Introduces a moment of silence after the pledge of allegiance. First president’s report outlines how he intends to approach his new role.

Min 26:43 citizen input here. (Thanks to the reader who caused us look into the linking to actual moments in the meetings.)

Welcome to new President Soderberg and Trustee Borst. “Are we in a communist village?” Social media comments are horrific regarding the village center. Speaker says no one mentions the costs as they are unknown, no TIDs. A big resounding no.

Congratulations. Recent plan commission meeting, one commissioner comments regarding being intimidated if ones perspective is different. Speaker is concerned about the remarks. There is power when speaking from the dais, just like putting your name on a yellow slip. “What that did is they compared me to an anonymous person on the internet. And that is a big disservice to everybody who’s going to come up here and make comments to everybody here.”

Congratulations. Thank you for the letter. Glad for the transparency, we haven’t had that in a few years. Can the sound associated with timer be turned off, it’s obnoxious. Glad the CUP fee is being returned. Too many short cuts are taken at the committee level. More action like today’s GGF meeting where they delved into certain items. Due diligence in development matters are frequently skipped over. A policy on communications of items for frequency, content and delivery methods would help people know where to find information. Changing the trustee positions on the commissions and committees is good. Bringing residents’ positions onto these board is also good. We need fresh eyes. Please do zero based budgeting this year.

(They turn the sound off. Good.)

Speaker promises not to sing “You can call me Al”. Welcome to the President and new Trustee. Glad about the CUP fee return. Per FOIA request records, thank you clerk’s office, Ehlers TID 10 presentation calls for $7.9M of borrowing, with $7.4 for phase one. Reviewing the documents the math does not add up. Has something changed? The information about this and the Ascension property merging the adjacent property at plan commission is missing. This used to be on the village website and appears to have been removed. Will there be a mortgage on the Ascension property? It’s not clear.

Congratulations. The speaker and President Soderberg, when he was school board president, had issues when he appeared before that board and commented on financial matters. He says they had differing views, but found middle ground due to mutual respect. The school board has improved and so the speaker spends more time at village meetings. He’s a big fan of the ACFR, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report of VOG. He presents comments based on this report, it’s not misinformation. He wants to see the Trustees leading the staff, not as it has been. The studies from the school district will be helpful and are not a stunt. Talk to the people you have a conflict with to work things out.

Looking forward to this new board helping to move the village forward. He asks that the CUP fee return is a rollcall vote.

Speaker invites President Soderberg to be the Burger Meister at Mai Fest.

Speaker asks for the speed limit to be reduced at Freistadt near Wrenwood subdivision. She had reached out to Director Retzlaff to no avail.

Min 47:40 Appointments to commissions and committees here. President Soderberg highlights a couple of changes to the slate of commission/committee appointees. On plan commission the school district appointee is being moved to citizen position to be allowed to vote until the muni-code is altered and he is allowed vote legally as the school board appointee. At that time, he will be moved back, and then another citizen will be appointee.

Reasoning for allowing the voting is to match the counterpart voting position of the village Trustee on the school district building and facilities board.

Trustee Baum makes a motion to remove the plan commission from the rest of the new commission/committee appointments so it can be discussed separately. Passes.

They then discuss.

Trustee Baum says that significant zoning changes are coming up, there’s an engineer on board already, and he recommends an architect be placed on the plan commission. He chooses himself.

Trustee Kaminski says that Trustee Warren and Trustee Baum are great to work with and supports putting Trustee Baum back on the commission.

Trustee Warren says he thinks that Trustee Baum adds more value to that position.

Trustee Jan Miller says that both have talent and that the board should respect the President’s choice.

Trustee Rick Miller asks President Soderberg why he wants to make the change, and Trustee Baum how he can handle conflicts of interest going forward, since there have been some and it will occur again?

Trustee Baum goes over the three times he had to recuse himself.

President Soderberg says Trustee Warren said yes. He goes on to say that there is a continuing conflict on the village center project. He doesn’t care what it is, but it should be known. He asks “Are you taking equity in the company? Are you drawing a salary in the company? Do you have a spouse working for the company?” He describes his prior conflicts and how they were handled. He further says that Trustee Baum is doing a disservice to the community and fellow Trustees by being in that situation.

President Soderberg continues by saying that he will be conflicted when there are TID 10 discussions, that Trustee Baum previously said that the conflict was over, but it’s not. “You were still conflicted,” regarding the trustees comment at a plan commission meeting, and that is why the change.

Trustee Baum retorts. He claims the attorney told him it was ok.

(Did he? Someone ask the attorney.)

He says that he explained the conflict in closed session and isn’t allowed to talk about things in closed session.

Soderberg says things will be done differently on the board, not in secret. He needs someone who can be present during the meetings, without recusal, and Trustee Baum is not that person.

Baum: thinks that because negotiations are over there is no conflict.

Soderberg: “There is a dark cloud on you.”

They vote, rollcall, on the amendment to remove Warren and replace Baum on the plan commission. Vote fails: 6-3.

Next up, Trustee Borst explains that her company is reviewing her request to be on GGF. She works as an auditor and because of her licensing and her employment, she must have their permission.

They adjust the slate for this situation.

Trustee Pieper confused about the process that allows the president to submit the slate of positions in her case. She has been appointed as participant for economic development committee, not chair, and has been removed from GGF.

Trustee Borst nomination pulled. They vote. It passes. 7-2.

They vote on consent agenda.

From agenda packet.

Min 1:12:30 Contract for Turf Management with Total Lawn Care here. A second proposal brought forward. Previously, only one was presented as two of the three requested declined. Turf Management is still low. Passes.

Min 1:15:30 Revenue Bonds here. $953K for painting the Mequon Road water tower.

Min 1:18:00 VOG Community Development Department text amendments here. Accessory structure muni-code changes. The citizen comment regarding children bus shelter structures has been addressed. Trustee Jan Miller asks for clarification. Passes.

Min 1:23:00 Rezoning of several properties here. Planning staff, Jordan Yanke and Jeff Retzlaf run through the descriptions. They all pass.

Min 1:31:30 Crew Carwash asks for an extension here. Applicant looking for a 12 month extension to the permits.

Min 1:35:00 Refund of CUP fee to Greg Kamyszek here. Trustee Kaminski asks for a recap of the matter from Brian Sajdak, attorney. He had recommended “No” at the time. He says that the recommendation was not “nice” or political. Trustee Kaminski makes the motion. All except Trustee Baum vote yes.

Min 1:39:40 Enforcement of Outdoor Entertainment permit here. The original intent was that everything be effective immediately, but forgot that unless the property owners were notified (they didn’t do it) that they would only find out when they applied for a renewal. So, with renewals coming up, and this new rule in place, and no special public safety meeting set on the calendar and no time for the applicants to make their submittals the suggestion is to move the timing of enforcement to the beginning of the licensing year, rather than having multiple submissions.

Min 1:44:00 Weights and measures resolution here. Passes.

Min 1:44 Police Union agreement discussion here. They don’t go into closed session. Administrator Kreklow describes the agreement. 4% increase 2025 - 2027 for unionized personnel. This will cause “compression” for the salaried people and there will need to be adjustments in the future budgets to accommodate this, as was done a few years ago. The referendum for public safety has extra dollars in it as not all the positions have been filled.

They discuss arbitration and how affordability is not a consideration allowed by law.

Passes. Trustee Baum votes no.

Meeting ends with the president saying “I survived. Drive home safe.”

How refreshing. Moving through those agenda items, covering the issues, and getting on with the community’s business in under two hours.

Next up:

4/28/2025 6:30pm Plan Commission Meeting agenda packet here.

5/5/2025 6:00pm Public Safety Committee. No agenda yet, two days ahead, go here.

5/5/2025 7:00pm Village Board. No agenda yet, two days ahead, go here.