5-12-25 Village Board Meeting — Minutes

Village Board Meeting Minutes May 12, 2025 On May 12. 2025, President Mike Brusberg called the Village Board meeting of the Village of Brooklyn to order at 6:32 p.m. Trustees present were David Berland, Mike Gehrmann, Dan Olson, Jake Bachim, Todd Klahn and Christian Allen. Also present was Tara Bast from Johnson Block, Sheri Arndt and Trenton Diehl from Brooklyn SnoHornets and Oregon SnoBlazers, Deputy Merrick Grumke, Clerk-Treasurer Linda Kuhlman. Public Comments – On behalf of the Brooklyn Area Chamber, Kuhlman thanked everyone who came to the Business Fair on May 6. President’s report – Brusberg stated this being the first official meeting as the new board, he thanked in advance for those newly elected on their opportunity to serve, Todd Klahn, Jake Bachim, and David Berland. He thanked everyone else for their willingness to participate for the next year. One groundwork item, there’s a lot of things going in the village, and he wants to be mindful of pressure from residents or business owners to be able to offer perspective and opinions and potentially have to go to action quickly. He’d like everyone to be mindful of the chain of command, so if action is needed or you’re lacking context in historical significance of what’s taken place, reach out to him, Spilde or Kuhlman. When we need to go to action rather quickly, where because of project we need to get moving, reach out to him and use him as a resource so he can get in touch with Kuhlman or Spilde and can go from there. Otherwise, if it’s something Olson needs to be aware of from a public works perspective, he can be informed also. Berland made a motion to approve minutes from April 14. Olson seconded. Motion carried. Bachim and Klahn abstained. Brooklyn Labor Day – Trenton Diehl and Sheri Arndt were present. Kuhlman said fire and public works comments are in the application. If Deputy Grumke has any police comments, he’s here today. Diehl said there are no changes for this year. Grumke said it will be same staffing as previous. Berland made a motion to approve special event application for the Brooklyn Labor Day Truck and Tractor Pull. Klahn seconded. Motion carried. Klahn made a motion to approve sound amplification permit. Bachim seconded. Motion carried. Diehl stated on behalf of the committee they have a couple donation checks – one to Brooklyn Recreation and one to the Village. They appreciate the village’s support and look forward to another successful year. The board thanked them. Fencing around project – Eithun stated he was here at the last meeting and doesn’t want people throwing stuff over his fence for his dog to get or writing on his fence. Brusberg said they did look at the plans, and as it pertains to his property, we can share the diagram of the project. There is going to be a dumpster with a fence there as a barrier around the dumpster. Allen said there is no parking in the spot directly adjacent to that part of the parking lot. Eithun asked if there will be trash cans for people to put items in. Brusberg said only the dumpsters in that area. There might be something on Hotel Street. Eithun said we’ll have to wait and see. Brusberg said if there is an issue, to please contact clerk or come to a board meeting. 2024 audit presentation by Johnson Block – Tara Bast introduced herself. The board introduced themselves. Audit is in draft form but ready to finalize. Kuhlman emailed the draft audit to the board. Bast went through the summary report. (The summary report can be found on the website on the budget page) The parts of the audit are table of contents; independent auditor’s report, with an unmodified opinion; financial statements of government-wide, reported on full accrual basis; fund financial statements – general fund and each of the self- balancing funds and then water/sewer statements; notes to financial statements with financial policies and footnote disclosures; required supplementary information and supplementary information which includes budget to actual and required schedules for WRS schedules and life insurance. Other reports they do are Department of Revenue financial report to calculate state aids; the Public Service Commission report for the water utility; TIF district annual report to DOR. There are also required audit communications to village board. It’s the standard communications they’re required to provide. There’s nothing out of the ordinary. Their recommendations are pretty standard. If anyone wants additional information, contact her. They talked with Kuhlman about operational things, internal controls. Biggest thing in smaller municipalities is oversight from the board, and understanding the functions and knowing where the weaknesses in internal controls are so there is some oversight. Page 1 is a condensed version of the general fund balance sheet. It shows assets and liabilities, and deferred inflows are related to tax levy, and then what’s left over is fund balance. When they talk about health of general fund, they look at fund balance. Cash doesn’t tell the whole story. This is the biggest benchmark when looking at general fund. Fund balance consists of nonspendible, assigned and unassigned. Nonspendible is an advance to TIF district. As that is repaid, nonspendible goes down and unassigned fund balance goes up. Assigned fund balance has detail on page 2. Large portion is per the village policy where at the end of every year any dollar amount over 30% is set aside for capital projects. Budget to actual comparison is at the bottom of the page. One of the comments was looking at if there are additional budget amendments at end of the year so the categories are in line to reflect any changes not known until end of year. Page 2 is comparison of rest of governmental funds; ending fund balance at the end of the last two years, referencing TIF 1 closed. Pages 3 and 4 are water and sewer utility. Water had a net loss and sewer had net income, includes depreciation, which is a non-cash expenditure. Cash flow is another way to look at it from operating, capital, and investing activities. Water had decrease in cash of $75,600, sewer had decrease in cash of $116,857. Next pages 5 and 6 show general fund expenditures over the last 5 years based on expenditure category. Pages 7 and 8 are same look but for general fund revenues. Largest source of revenue is property taxes, then intergovernmental revenues. Page 9 looks at general obligation debt versus capacity to borrow. Under state statutes municipalities can borrow up to 5% of equalized value, and so our ability to borrow is $9.3 million. Actual debt outstanding at end of year was $3.6 million. What doesn’t count against that is note anticipation note and short-term borrowing are not included. Page 10 looks at how tax levy breaks out. The village’s portion of tax roll is 28% over the last two years. Local schools is always the largest. She asked if there are any questions. Bast said water and sewer assets from TIF assets are captured in water and sewer. Gehrmann asked on page 3 on water and sewer, are we running at a loss on water and sewer this year? Bast said it’s a decrease in cash flow, in operating cash. She said the sewer utility did put money into investments, into something other than cash, and put in CD, so for purposes of cash flow it has to be 3 months. If the maturity dates are longer than 3 months, it’s pulled out of decrease. It’s still cash in sewer utility, and it’s there to draw on. Kuhlman said water was mostly for the well repair done last year, and Berland suggested water main breaks also. It was over $120,000 for the well. Bast said there was a simplified rate case last year for partial year, and we should look at that every couple of years. They recommend looking every year to avoid having a big increase down the road. Brusberg said the decision was made in the last couple of years to take idle cash and put it to use. Ehlers is managing a portion of those cash assets and locked some in with CD to capture additional interest earnings. The board thanked Bast. Brusberg asked if there is anything she’d recommend to focus on as a board. Bast suggested looking at budget amendments and talking through it. We don’t need to look at individual lines but if whole category is starting to reach being over budget, that’s when you talk about fund balance to carry over. Klahn noticed sick leave pay went up, are we funding that sick leave balance. Kuhlman explained that employees can accumulate up to 960 hours through lifetime, and board decided previously that if you retire from the village, you can convert sick leave hours into health insurance payments. So we are trying to take extra fund balance money every year and put in a separate account, so when it gets to the point someone is getting close to retirement, we have money to fund it. Bast said there are new governmental accounting standards that changed the method for calculating and accruing compensated absences and in most cases it included increasing liability, so financial statements it has increased for most of her clients because of new standard. Kuhlman said in the next month, we can talk about putting more into that account. Fencing north edge of project – Berland said he doesn’t think it will be an issue. He would be in favor of a motion to defer conversation on this item until construction is complete to see if anything is happening. Olson said there are no parking stalls near there because that’s stormwater retention. Brusberg said unless there are any concerns, we will monitor it. If anything comes up, the board can reconvene. Lighting on Hotel Street – Brusberg stated the suggestion and guidance that has been given to Spilde and Kuhlman, whatever we’re doing let’s do something that will last. There was an event that if we were to lay conduit, that allows us flexibility to tweak lighting down the road versus the way it’s set up now. What we approved previously was for savings. Klahn knows they nixed lighting because of the expense. If lay conduit, you can pull wires for lighting in the future, you just need to cut out the squares for a light box. if you don’t, you disrupt the rest of concrete. Brusberg said when presented to us as part of master plan, it was in excess of $140,000-150,000. The focus was to bring budget down. Klahn doesn’t have a problem with not doing it, but have the conduit so it can be done in the future. Brusberg said that option wasn’t discussed. Allen asked if we just have standard lighting now, and this was excess eliminated. Brusberg said the conduit gives us more flexibility. The numbers are within our contingency. It was around $20,000. He gave the go ahead to get it done. Allen asked if they will do an as-built or put a tracer wire in there for the futureDiscussion on ways to mark conduit to find it in the future. Board asked to have Spilde see what the design is. Allen made a motion to approve conduit and looking into ideas discussed. Klahn seconded. Motion carried. Committees – Discussion on who to put on which committees. Public Works added Klahn and Bachim. Berland on Media Committee. Gehrmann on Recreation. Bachim on Planning & Zoning instead of Olson. Gehrmann and Allen on Ordinance. Brusberg and Olson on TID Joint Review Board. Brusberg said bring back TID review board later in the year. Brandon Arndt, Amanda Shippee, Brock Burnard and Sandy Glasier on Board of Review. Gehrmann, Brusberg and Berland on Finance, and also on Personnel. Gehrmann, Allen and Bachim on Ordinance. Brusberg is willing to continue on Fire-EMS Commission but will let board know if it’s too much. Klahn said he would step in if it gets to be too much for Brusberg. Klahn asked when board looks at next year’s budget, look at committee wages and board wages and review them. Kuhlman said Dane County Cities and Villages just came out with survey results on wages. Brusberg made a motion to approve committee assignments as discussed. Olson seconded. Motion carried. Secondary bank signer –Brusberg said in the past we had a second person as a signer, and he was it. Now that he’s president, we need a new person. Berland volunteered. Brusberg made a motion to set Berland up for secondary signer on checks. Gehrmann seconded. Motion carried. Berland abstained. Meeting dates and times – Kuhlman said there was some discussion in the past on starting at 6 and also thoughts on flipping the days. Bachim prefers Monday, Allen said Monday is fine, Olson is fine. Allen prefers 6. Berland can’t do 6. Brusberg suggested leaving it on Mondays at 6:30 but evaluate as seasons change. Bachim and Klahn winters could go earlier but are flexible. Brusberg made a motion to stay at Mondays at 6:30 but will evaluate start times as the seasons change. Berland asked if there’s any appetite to switch from 2 nd and 4th Mondays to 1st and 3rd. There was no big opposition. Berland said stick with what we have but look at 1st and 3rd Mondays. Brusberg said we can bring it back to first meeting in August. Berland seconded. Motion carried. President pay request – Brusberg stated in order for him to have the president position, he can’t accept the pay that exists. He would like to get paid per meeting and put a cap of $150 each month. Anything above that he would like invested back into the community with some recreation facilities. If supportive, see what some things will cost, bring back to the board and move forward and do those things, like basketball hoops. The extra would never go to him, but would sit in a fund and go from there. Because of his day job he can’t accept it. Klahn something like that, wouldn’t that have to be rolled out every year. Brusberg said during his term he’s doing it. He would look to spend dollars each year. Klahn is supportive. Berland made a motion to accept Brusberg’s proposal of reinvesting president pay back into community into a fund overseen by clerk and moderated by he and the board for his term as president. Bachim seconded. Brusberg said it will never hit his paycheck. Motion carried. Refinancing Resolution 2025-09 - Berland asked if we can pay this off early if refinance short-term. Kuhlman said yes. Berland asked if we’re going to close on the property in next 4 months. Kuhlman said hopefully. Brusberg said Lake Ridge offered an interest rate of 6.19% and One Community is presently 5.8%, and Kuhlman added currently we’re paying 6.3%. Brusberg asked about prepayment penalty with One Community. Kuhlman said no. Berland is in favor. Klahn asked for explanation because he doesn’t know the history. Berland said we did a short-term instrument when we bought the land. We thought we were going to get the deal done. The short-term is expiring, and so we need to refinance. Brusberg added that the proceeds from the sale will more than satisfy the loan, and the excess would go towards the TID. Berland said it would only be a couple hundred dollars difference. Kuhlman said current is with Lake Ridge. Bachim said we do a lot of business with Lake Ridge, and we’re talking that little. Berland’s concern is will we actually get this deal done. Kuhlman said she thinks so; she spoke with Groenier today and they were finalizing a few things. Berland said about $200/month difference. Klahn would prefer to keep to Lake Ridge. Berland made a motion to refinance into the Lake Ridge instrument. Klahn seconded. Brusberg said the only value of doing One Community Bank is it allows us to diversify who we work with. Bachim asked if we do any banking with One Community. Kuhlman said not at this time. Ayes – 7. Noes – none. Motion carried. Investing of public funds -- Kuhlman said right now we’re getting 4.53% interest at Lake Ridge, and One Community Bank is offering 4.39%. Brusberg suggested staying at Lake Ridge for now. Brusberg said quarterly the finance committee can look at options. Gehrmann asked if we could ask them to match. Kuhlman thought the same thing. Brusberg said if they can lock it in, it’s a deal. Brusberg said if we do diversify, One Community has offered lower interest rates for loan purposes, so if we actually start to building an account with them, it might help for future borrowing purposes. Discussion. Klahn is in favor of opening the second door. Berland made a motion to conditionally accept Resolution 2025-10 if One Community Bank is willing to beat Lake Ridge Bank by a minimum of 10 basis points. Klahn seconded. Motion carried. Resolution 2025-11 CMAR – Kuhlman explained the two C’s on the report. One is in the section of effluent quality and plant performance, and that reason goes back to the phosphorus limits and how it was written in permit but it was different on the report. We were meeting it but now when we put in the numbers, it doesn’t match. It was quarterly/yearly but on report it’s monthly. The other C is with the operator licensing. Spilde doesn’t have all of the advanced licenses, but Hollis does. Spilde asked if he can put Hollis down, but has not heard back. Klahn made a motion to approve Resolution 2025-11 Compliance Maintenance Report year of 2024. Gehrmann seconded. Motion carried. Olson reviewed bills and had a question on Cintas, there was an increase. Brusberg stated we had two extra weeks, because last time we paid was mid-April. Olson said it was the same with LV Laboratories. Kuhlman explained we had two bills since we hadn’t paid bills for a month. No other problems. Olson made a motion to approve bills as presented. Brusberg seconded. Motion carried. Klahn abstained. Clerk’s report – Financials for April aren’t finished yet. She attended League of Insurance onference. Board got copies of their 2024 report. We received a dividend of $1,721. That was a little higher from previous year. They are again offering a safety equipment grant for next year. They are raising it slightly this year. Last year was $600. Open Book is this Wednesday from 4-6 p.m. Board of Review is June 2 from 6 to 8 p.m. We got final confirmation and funds for Board of Commissioner of Public Lands for Hotel Street project of $920,000. If we don’t use it all, we will use the extra to pay down principal. Hotel Street update, they’re close to finishing grading and thinks they will have curb/gutter in before end of week. Inside village hall, Wednesday plumbers are coming, and we’re waiting to hear about carpet. Fire/EMS service award program yearly report was given to the board. This year went better than last year; better returns on the investments. Reports go to each member, and she will send to all municipalities and fire-EMS commission. Alley survey update, we started a project to fix alley issue of who owns what,and the best way to do it is by doing a new assessor’s plot. They straightened out the alley, and a couple properties are getting a little more they didn’t have before. Combs is putting in the stakes. Once done, we send out a notice to all property owners. All owners need to sign off on stakes around parcels. Gehrmann asked if any came out. Kuhlman said a few have. They’re signing off on their properties. Allen asked if anyone got less. Kuhlman said no. Anchor Club, the property on east end and lot 2 is getting a little extra. Klahn asked if we’re getting anything on lot 7. Kuhlman said no, he owns it, but we will have to get an easement through there. Olson said it will be nice to get it cleaned up. After everyone signs off, we will have another resolution. We received lottery credit payments and personal property aid payments beginning of May. Treatment plant permit upgrades, we met with engineers. With our permit and upgrades, some reports are due next April. One for PFAS and one for temperature, we need reports and plans in place. And also we are required to do a facility study and we should do a rate study. Over the next two years that cost will be about $70,000, and that doesn’t include engineering or building fpr permit required upgrades. Gehrmann asked if we need to send proposals to get pricing. Kuhlman said you can, but we will get a price from our engineers. Brusberg said the upside is our engineers know our system. Auction items were sold and we received about $635. A few other things we junked. Food truck nights start tomorrow. Fireworks – Brusberg stated something was put in newsletter and Facebook for volunteers. Gehrmann got zero emails and Bruner had no responses. He talked to some residents, but no one took any interest in wanting to organize. Brusberg asked if they had any businesses or folks willing to donate money. Kuhlman said no. Brusberg said part of condition is we needed a committee to lead it and we don’t want fireworks paid for by tax dollars but should come through donations. Those conditions weren’t met, so it makes the decision for us. Brusberg said at the Chamber outing the Legion approached Kuhlman about doing something next year for 250 th birthday of the USA. Bachim said we should notify the lighting crew and let them know. Gehrmann made a motion to not have a fireworks display on this 4th of July. Olson seconded. Gehrmann said it would be good to post on social media that we aren’t having the fireworks. Brusberg as part of that if there is interest in future, please reach out to the village. Olson said now is the time to get a committee for next year. Motion carried. Bachim abstained. Klahn made a motion at 8:17 p.m. to adjourn. Gehrmann seconded. Motion carried. Linda Kuhlman, WCPC, CMTW; Clerk-Treasurer