City's New Substation

Tyranena substation

o Substation is now expected to be energized and in service by November 19,
o Contractor is completing final tests and coordination settings on breakers and switches,
o Discovered a trip mechanism breaker in the existing CP substation that had failed while performing the coordination of breakers – we’ve been nursing this breaker along for about a year, the breaker is now permanently bypassed and will not be needed when the new sub is in service,
o Installation of two feeder circuits to south must be completed before energizing, working with landowner to secure easements for a portion of these feeders,
o SCADA system will be completed after the station is energized, and ATC is doing final testing on the transmission line.

Business Practice?

The following story caught my eye. “Olsen Brothers Enterprises LLP has been ordered to pay about $194,000 in fines and other fees for violating storm water and erosion control laws while they built new grain storage facilities in Belmont and Boscobel.”
The reason the story interests me is that I’ve been doing site plans and building permits for years and thought that some (not all) companies have used the following tactics during construction projects.
“In its decision, the court said the defendants' history in these operations appears to be that "they would make the business decision, go forward with the project, and accept the costs for violation of the permitting procedure as a cost of doing business." As a result, the State of Wisconsin was compelled to obtain a restraining order to make construction cease at the Belmont site until a permit was obtained.”
Now, I’m sure that has been a business plan rather then lack of experience. The fact is that many small cities lack the ability and will to stand up to these companies because of a lack of qualified personnel, money and the politics involved. A big company bringing jobs and other investments verses the government bureaucrat – hard to win that public opinion poll.
What really bothers me is that the problem is going to get worse – not better. These companies now use the economy as the basis for only wanting to invest in what makes them money and think it’s the governments’ responsibility to handle the third party effects or better yet – ignore them. These small cities will require additional funds that will have to be generated at the local level to support the cost of covering the third party effects. The public isn’t interested in giving us anymore money for anything. Yet, the cost of making them comply is going to cost a lot too! Small cities and the State are going to have to have a plan for dealing with this problem.

Main Street Program Kiosk

The Main Street Board has requested the city allow them to place a kiosk in the Commons for information distribution. The kiosk would hold information regarding businesses in Lake Mills.
To allow a private entity to construct a park element, the element should meet certain conditions. The Council should probably grant an easement to the Main Street Program stating the conditions of the easement agreement, such as, location, size, design, time period, level of maintenance, etc.
The City may also determine that the park is fully developed and therefore, no new park elements would be accepted for the park.
The Parks Board has reviewed this issue and made a recommendation regarding said element.

Why We Protect Frontyards

The main intention of a building setback is to protect the building occupants and adjacent buildings from visual intrusion, noise, erosion, landslides and slope failure, sight problems for vehicles and pedestrians, and pollutants from the road. They also promote light and air separation for fire protection and access for firefighting; promote reasonable physical relationship between houses; promote privacy for neighboring properties; promote visually pleasing front yards; promote lot flexibility; protect environmental features, such as wetlands, slopes, wooded areas, lakes, etc. They also reflect the city’s intent to scale and placement of homes and buildings that are compatible with the neighborhood.
They also provide for emergency access, utility easements, snow storage, water drainage, storm water control and future right-of-way needs. Setbacks are used to help safeguard and enhance the environmental quality of the area in relation to streetscape or physical landscape, building size, and building density.

Financial Accounting System

The City Accounting System is the total method of records and procedures of recording, retrieving, and reporting information on the financial position and operations of our organization or any classifying of its funds, balanced account groups and organizational components.
We have a Chart of Accounts that lists all the accounts generally used in an accounting system. In addition to account title, the chart includes an account number which has been assigned to each account. Accounts in the chart are arranged with accounts of a similar nature; for example, assets and liabilities.
Each Account is a descriptive heading under which are recorded financial transactions that are similar in terms of a given frame of reference, such as purpose, object, or source.
The real question is does the recording and reporting of activities and events affecting the money of our organization and its program provide the information needed to evaluate the status and results of operations. Specifically, for effective financial accounting, it should (1) have determined what accounting records are to be maintained, how they will be maintained, and the procedures, methods, and forms to be used; (2) what recording, classifying, and summarizing activities or events are needed; (3) how to analyze and interpret recorded data; and (4) the who, what, where, when and how of preparing reports and statements that reflect the condition as of a given date, the results of operations for a specific period, and the evaluation of status and results of operation in terms of established objectives.
Can we say that the information recorded in our financial system is allowing for effective evaluation? For the State, Auditors, Administration, Department Heads or Council members?

More Performance Measurement

I have asked the Department Heads to work on a project with the UW-Extension Local Government Center and University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Center for Governmental Studies on producing both detail performance measurement and performance/outcome based budgeting educational materials and training as well as establishing a clearinghouse of performance measurement data for Wisconsin local governments. The clearinghouse will provide performance data collected from Wisconsin municipalities and counties to enable local governments to make more informed policy decisions.
In a nutshell, there has been interest expressed by municipal governments throughout the State and they have all had differences of opinion about particular measures. Eventually they settled on some good outcome and output measures for key services that have broad support.
They have asked us to provide the indicator information from the past 6 years. The Department Heads have filled out the indices and indicated how the indices were measured on the spreadsheet if they were different than requested. The UW-Extension Local Government Center and University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Center for Governmental Studies will probably need to do some data “cleaning” and will follow-up with questions. The more documentation we have up, the easier the cleaning will be.

Budget Notice Requirements

The city clerk is required to publish a Class 1 notice, under ch. 985, Stats., the notice is a budget summary in the form prescribed by the manager and by sec. 65.90(3)(b), Stats. The notice has to indicate where the proposed budget in detail is available for public inspection and the time and place at which a public hearing on the proposed budget is to be conducted. The council has to hold a public hearing on the proposed budget within 15 days of the published notice. Following the public hearing the proposed budget may be changed without the requirement of a two-thirds vote as provided under sec. 65.90(5)(a), Stats.

Fire Department Budget Review

Annually, prior to approval of the fire department budget, the City Manager shall meet with all the towns that have contracted with the City for fire services for the purpose of reviewing the proposed fire department budget as determined by the City Manager for the succeeding year. The purpose of this meeting is to invite the comment of the Town as to the fire department budget, provided, however, that it is the expressed understanding of the towns that the final and sole authority for the determination as to the amount of the fire department budget, and its component parts, shall be vested with the City Council. This budget meeting shall be held after the distribution of the budget estimate. The towns may request an additional meeting to be conducted after the City Council adopts the annual City budget ordinance for the purpose of determining exact Contract costs in the succeeding year.

CP/Owen/Prairie Sanitary Sewer Project by Brian Beaulieu

As of the end of the day Friday the 16th, each crew is in the following position:

· Miles Narveson’s crew was 131 feet upstream of the intersection of Owen and CP. They have installed 1031 LF of mainline pipe with 1869 LF left to go. They also have 6 manholes left to install, as well as the laterals on Prairie south of Mulberry.

· Tom Birch’s crew has installed Manhole #18 near the TID #4 basin at the end of Cherokee Path. They have also installed all of the mainline pipe in the Alternative bid area north of Mulberry Street. They have yet to complete all of the laterals along Prairie north of Mulberry.

So far, the crews have been averaging between 45 and 50 hours per week, and have yet to work on Saturday. Including today, there are 20 week days and 4 Saturdays remaining until the contract completion date. At the current rate of pipe installation, Rawson should be able to get all of the pipe in the ground by the completion date, but they may not be able to get all of the trench areas prepped and paved.

Right of Way Encroachment

The Tyranena Beer Run is coming up November 3rd and they have again requested the City Council close Owen Street for the event. It's the first item on the Council agenda tomorrow night (Oct. 20) and should pass without any problem.
The street closure did not cause any problems during last year's event and the Council will want to encourage a successful activity.

THE MUNICIPAL CODE

The following general description of the Lake Mills Municipal Code may be useful as you begin working with the city.

TITLE 1 – Explains the checks and balances of the City Manager form of government, as well as information on the budget.

TITLE 2 – Sets out the duties and authority for various boards and commission, most of which are recommending bodies to the Council, but some are more independent, such as the Board of Review, Zoning Board of Appeals, and the Police and Fire Commission.

TITLE 3 – This title sets out licensing requirements, which most frequently arise in the area of liquor and tavern operator licensing requests.

TITLE 4 – Deals with sewer regulations, garbage and recycling, weeds, and yard waste, as well as some forms of nuisances.

TITLE 5 – These are a collection of many of the municipal code violations for which persons can receive citations from the police department.

TITLE 6 – This title deals with the traffic laws that are enforced by the police and prosecuted by the City Attorney in Municipal Court.

TITLE 7 – This title is a collection of ordinances that have some relationship to public property. Therefore, there are regulations for sidewalks; excavations in rights-of-way; trees and plants on public property (and on private property if they pose a threat to the public); the special assessment procedures for charging property owners for streets, sidewalks, sewers and water mains that benefit their properties; the cemetery and parks regulations and rules; water recreation regulations; cable TV regulations; and impact fees.

TITLE 8 – These building regulations are enforced by the building inspector.

TITLE 9 – These are the fire department regulations, which are generally enforced by the fire inspector.

TITLE 10 – This title has all of the zoning regulations, which are enforced by the Zoning Administrator.

TITLE 11 – This title provides for regulation of land divisions, which are primarily plats or certified survey maps (CSM’s).

FALL PICK UP 2009

The annual FREE FALL PICK UP of brush and yard waste will begin November 2nd. We will make a one time circuit around the City and pick up brush and yard waste that is neatly stacked on the terrace, NOT mixed into leaf piles, and NOT obstructed by mailboxes, trees, etc. If you are unable to take advantage of the free pick up, you may schedule a Special Pick Up at City Hall for a $30 fee, OR, take it to the Yard Waste Center on Stony Rd which is open 24/7, for FREE.

The next scheduled pick up will be in January when Christmas trees will be picked up as time permits.

PWB Substation Tour

The Public Works Board and the City Council will be touring the new substation this week. The substation is scheduled to be online by the end of October.
The Light and Water Utility recently constructed a new open framed distribution substation on Tyranena Park Road just west of Rock Creek. The new substation consists of two three-phase transformers with load tap changers with an approximate rating of 25/46.6 MVA that will step voltage from 138,000 volts to 24,940 volts, transformer protection, circuit reclosers/breakers operated at 24,940 volts, and associated steel structures and materials required to connect the equipment to the transmission and distribution systems. The developed area for the new substation site is approximately 77,000 square feet (325 feet by 240 feet).
The substation construction consisted of stripping unsuitable soil from the construction site, filling with appropriate granular backfill, installation of foundations to support equipment, ground grid for safety, conduit and wiring for power and control of equipment, equipment and steel for operation, and other typical items for a municipal substation to ensure a safe and effective installation.

What's with all the Street Sweeping?

The City sweeps streets and parking lots every two weeks during the summer. This is done because there is some reduction in the discharge of chemical constituents, sediment, and litter to stormwater from street surfaces and parking lots with an intensive (at least twice weekly) street-cleaning program. Street sweeping has been found most effective for stormwater quality improvement in commercial business districts and intensely developed areas (Washington State Dept of Ecology, 1992). The reduction in solids and other materials resulting from an aggressive street sweeping program can reduce the maintenance requirements of structural runoff controls and provide aesthetic benefits to area residents. Solids collected by street sweepers must be disposed of properly, commonly in municipal landfills.
Improvements in the design and use of street sweepers may offer hope for additional reduction in stormwater loads. The four types of sweepers currently being used include:

1. Mechanical street sweepers
2. Vacuum street sweepers
3. Regenerative air street sweepers
4. Advanced high efficiency sweepers

Mechanical broom sweepers are more effective for removing litter and other large particles. On the other hand, vacuum sweeper inlets must be close to the ground to provide sufficient suction and consequently are not effective for litter removal, but collect more of the smaller particles responsible for much of the chemical constituent load in stormwater runoff. Regenerative air sweepers are similar to vacuum sweepers, except that they have a larger pickup head, and the air is recycled. Advanced high efficiency sweepers are used in industrial applications and are designed to remove the smaller particles.
Tandem street sweeping offers an opportunity to exploit the strengths of both mechanical and vacuum type sweepers. Tandem operations involve the combined use of mechanical and vacuum sweepers in successive cleaning passes. A new type of vacuum-assisted dry sweeper also has been developed that provides the important components of tandem sweeping in a single unit.
Chemical constituent, litter and sediment removal rates are also directly related to frequency of sweeping (particularly vacuum sweeping), the rate at which sediment and other debris accumulates on paved surfaces, and the average interval between storms.
The rate at which sediment accumulates depends on a number of factors, including traffic count, adjacent land use, and site design. Sediment is also continuously being removed by wind and traffic-generated turbulence. Consequently, the maximum accumulation (equilibrium between accumulation and removal) can occur in just a few days on highways lacking curbs or other roadside barriers. Structures that help retain sediment on shoulders and the road surface such as concrete guardrails or curbs allow more material to accumulate; therefore, the maximum accumulation might not occur for several weeks.

NIMS Prepared

The National Integration Center (NIC) Incident Management Systems Integration (IMSI) Division strongly recommends that all elected officials who will be interacting with multiple jurisdictions and agencies during an incident at the minimum complete IS-700: NIMS, An Introduction and ICS-100: Introduction to ICS. These courses provide a basic understanding of the National Incident Management System and the Incident Command System. Everyone directly involved in managing an emergency should understand the command reporting structures, common terminology, and roles and responsibilities inherent in a response operation.
Wisconsin Emergency Management recommends that all local elected officials complete the ICS-402: Incident Command System (ICS) Summary for Executives, Agency administrators, elected officials, government senior managers, private sector managers or executives.

Lake Mills Streaming

You can now watch Lake Mills Government meetings on your computer by going to this link, www.ustream.tv/channel/tyranena-tv. Another way to learn about your local government.

Uniform Chart of Accounts

The chart of accounts is a listing of all the accounts in the general ledger, each account accompanied by a reference number. To set up a chart of accounts, one first needs to define the various accounts to be used by each fund. Each account should have a number to identify it. For very small cities, three digits may suffice for the account number, though more digits are highly desirable in order to allow for new accounts to be added as the city grows. With more digits, new accounts can be added while maintaining the logical order.
The State of Wisconsin has a recommended Uniform Chart of Accounts designed for cities. The primary objective of a Uniform Chart of Accounts is to facilitate the preparation of uniform annual financial statements, that is, statements that may be reliably compared to those of other cities. Because of this aim, it is especially important that transactions are entered in a consistent manner.
The City of Lake Mills uses the State recommended Uniform Chart of Accounts as a basis, but with a twist because of the numbering system used by our accounting software. The city has a relatively simple accounting setup and as economic pressures demand better performance measurement and the city grows this will need to change. The change process begins with the bookkeeper and the persons in the departments who are responsible for assigning account numbers to PO’s. Next, the bookkeeper and top management must determine if meaningful reports can be produced from the system to measure overall performance. Management will need to consult with the auditors to determine if the new system meets legal requirements and finally staff must work with the software consultant to make the system work in the computer.

City Fund Accounting

Fund accounting is used throughout the City, both for budgeting and accounting. Under this system money is segregated into separate accounts, rather than being held in one central account. Each fund has been established for a specific purpose, and is somewhat like a separate bank account and in many cases is a separate account.
Those funds used to pay for operations, maintenance, and other ongoing activities are like checking accounts. Generally, revenues flowing into the fund are spent during the same year. Other funds are more like savings accounts. Money accumulates for periodic capital needs, such as construction of a new park or drainage improvements. The balance in those funds grows until an expenditure is made. Spending can vary greatly from year to year.

A City's Debt Service

The amount spent on debt service in relation to total revenues is a critical indicator of financial condition. There is no question that the use of debt to help smooth costs over time can be very beneficial for cities. It provides stability so that cities are not forced to make radical changes in property tax rates from year to year in response to lumpy capital costs. Furthermore, it ensures that future users pay their share of the costs of providing public goods and services. However if the ratio of debt to revenue is increasing over time, and in particular if that ratio grows to exceed 20 percent, a city is probably relying too much on debt and not growing its revenue at a sustainable rate to meet expenditures.

Public Hearing

City councils are sometimes required by state law to hold public hearings. Since the issues addressed in these public hearings are frequently contentious, may involve due process rights of private parties, and generate litigation, it is important to know and follow proper hearing procedures. Because these procedures are not generally spelled out in the statutes that require hearings, there is no ready guide for public bodies to follow when conducting hearings.
Although a public hearing is also a public meeting, the main purpose of most public hearings is to obtain public testimony or comment. A public hearing may occur as part of a regular or special meeting, or it may be the sole purpose of a special meeting, with no other matters addressed.
There are two types of public hearings, legislative and quasi-judicial, and it is important to understand the distinction between them. The purpose of a legislative public hearing is to obtain public input on legislative decisions on matters of policy. Legislative public hearings are required by state law when a city addresses such matters as comprehensive land use plans or the annual budget. Legislative public hearings are generally less formal than quasi-judicial public hearings. They do not involve the legal rights of specific, private parties in a contested setting, but rather affect a wider range of citizens or perhaps the entire jurisdiction. The wisdom of legislative decisions reached as a result of such hearings is not second-guessed by the courts; if challenged, they are reviewed only to determine if they are constitutional or violate state law.
On certain controversial legislative issues, it can be important to conduct a thoughtful public process in advance of any public hearing. Hearings often occur late in the process and may leave citizens with the impression that local officials do not want to hear their ideas. Council chambers are formal and can be intimidating to citizens who are not accustomed to public speaking. The format of hearings often leaves little, if any, room for reasonable discussion, give or take, or response to prior testimony.
Here are some brief thoughts on the public hearing process. Involve citizens in the early stages of the policy development process. Make sure that there is plenty of opportunity for people to get answers to questions; this usually does not happen at a formal public hearing. Consider using a trained facilitator to facilitate discussion on really controversial issues. Good public process can be time consuming and expensive. However, these processes increase the potential to arrive at solutions that have strong support in the community.
Because legislative hearings are generally informal, the main concern is to provide an opportunity for all attending members of the public to speak if they so desire. Time limits should be placed on individual comments if many people are intending to testify, and the public should be advised that comments must relate to the matter at hand. Order and decorum should be maintained at all times. The "ground rules" for the conduct of the hearing should be stated by the chairperson or presiding official at the beginning of the hearing.
Be prepared! Don't come to the hearing cold. Review the ordinance amendment and supporting documentation, and any staff-prepared documents and recommendations prior to the hearing. Have clear ground rules for conducting the hearing. Keep order in the hearing, limit testimony where necessary, but maintain an impartial attitude during the hearing phase of the agenda.