Committee of the Whole meeting — Minutes

MEETING MINUTES Committee of the Whole Nov. 17, 2025 6:15 pm Village Hall 100 W. Taft St. Palmyra, WI. The meeting was called to order by Gorse gner at 6:00 p.m. Roll call: Ball, Wallace, Petruska, Smith, Deichl, Tucker, Gorsegner -present. Also present: Paul Blount , Mike Gartzke, Scott Halbrucker, Penny LePak, Stephanie Butler. Pledge of Allegiance Communications: President Gorsegner read aloud the press release from the Public Safety Dept. regarding the 287(g) program . Trustee Petruska said that the library is having a presentation on Bangladesh, she also asked if there is an update from 5 Bugels. Rural Entrepreneurial Adventure meeting is scheduled for Dec. 4 th at 6 pm at the HS community center. This is through a partnership with the UW Rural extension. Petruska has reached out to the local bank and school and also local businesses and invited them to attend. Department Reports: o Building Inspection - none o Clerk / Treasurer- budgets, grant information and working with the 2 ladies who have been helping with the court financials. o Library- Trustee Petruska reported that they will be having a capital improvements meeting, redid the budget and approved o Parks & Recreation-stephanie end of basketball Nov. 11th, other baseball team option. o Public Safety -Paul Blount said that our department will be heavily involved in Frank Sauter’s funeral. Sauter was a Sharon and Palmyra police officer. Recruitment update: The first paid on call community member is back. There are 2 more in process. Traffic patrol is busy; Dec. court will be busy. The 12-hr. patrol schedule is going well M-Sat. Mike Gartzke reported that last week their dept. had 18 calls for service, 8 in one day. Mutual aid for a combine field fire to Kettle Moraine, barn fire on Marsh Road today. They will be hiring PT paid on call people , they have 2 interested people. 5 Bugels had their 1 st onsite visit today. They told us to anticipate 3-4 months’ start to finish before we see a report. There will be different groups of people coming through to do their portion of the assessment. o Public Works - Scott reported that we scored 7 th out of over 100 applicants for the DNR funding for the PFAS loan so we will be eligible for 50% principal forgiveness up to $7 million. Halbrucker updated the board on the class action lawsuit regarding the PFAS and the funding we will receive from 3M, Tico and BSF . The Christmas decorations went up today and they are getting the plows ready. Hazel Green will be coming to tour our sewer plant with Energenecs. There will be 1 more yard waste date, Nov. 29th. Committee Reports: None New Business: 1. Entire Committee of the Whole A. Smith/Tucker motion to move our court citations to Lake Country out of Oconomowoc upon advice of our Village Attorney and research that Director Blount has done. They have court clerks on staff 5 days a week to answer calls about citations and North Prairie is only part time. All ayes- motion carried. B. Tucker/Ball motion to approve the minutes from November 3, 2025 Village Board meeting as presented. All ayes- motion carried. C. Discussion/possible action on the Historic Preservation’s requests to approve adding 38 structures within the Village to the Historic registry. Alissa Simmons from the Historic Preservation Commission was present and stated that this is for only 10 addresses, not 38. Their Commission has made this recommendation, and the Village Board needs to approve. Wallace/Petruska motion to add the 10 addresses presented tonight. All ayes-motion carried. 2. Administration & Planning: Chairperson Deichl A. Trustee Wallace submitted a form that she drafted using some ideas from other communities. Tucker/Deichl motion to approve the special event/parade form as presented tonight, this will be effective Jan. 1, 2026. All ayes-motion carried. The clerk will send the form out to the groups that use it the most to give them advance notice. 3. Budget & Finance Committee: Chairperson Wallace A. Smith/Ball motion to approve the payment of bills totaling $173,344.59 on the bill list with the extras presented tonight to AFLAC, municipal court payments to the state and county, Von Briesen legal, and UNUM . Roll call vote: Ball, Wallace, Petruska, Smith, Deichl, Tucker, Gorsegner- aye. Motion carried. 4. Personnel Committee: Chairperson Tucker A. Discussion/possible action on the performance evaluation forms for Village employees. Trustee Tucker said that the personnel committee and dept. heads reviewed them. She said the old process was to do reviews twice per year. They removed the self-evaluation forms. The reviews on the employees by their dept. heads are due Jan. 31st. They will discuss goals for the year. Then by Feb. 28th personnel committee to review dept heads. They would set goals for the year. July 31st dept heads sit down with the teams and look at progress with goals, Aug. 31st VB would set with dept heads to help determine raises. All forms need to be turned into the clerk except for the employee’s reviews of the dept heads. Dec. 1st meeting forms will be on agenda. 5. Petruska/Wallace motion to convene into closed session at 6:54 pm pursuant to State Statute 19.85(1)(c) Considering employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. Specifically, the Public Safety Departments organizational structure and employee contracts. Roll call vote: Ball, Wallace, Petruska, Smith, Deichl, Tucker, Gorsegner- aye. Motion carried. 6. Petruska/Smith motion to convene into open session at 7:55 pm pursuant to §19.85(2), Stats., for possible additional discussion and action concerning any matter discussed. Roll call vote: Ball, Wallace, Petruska, Smith, Deichl, Tucker, Gorsegner- aye. Motion carried. Wallace/Petruska motion to adjourn at 7:58 pm. All ayes-motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Laurie Mueller Village Clerk/Treasurer Minutes approved without corrections Dec. 1, 2025