City-wide pickup continues to dominate Council conversations

by Beth Kraft

Though the City of Mondovi is still on pace with plans to move to a mandatory city-wide garbage and recycling pickup format starting March 1, some residents are holding out hope that city leaders may still revisit the issue.

At the Council’s first meeting of the New Year on Tuesday, Jan. 12, Teresa Schofield came forward with a petition that has circulated around the city, drawing 128 signatures from residents who say they disagree with the Council’s Oct. 27 move to sign a contract with Durand Sanitation for city-wide pickup.

The petition mentions that city leaders have taken away the residents’ choice of selecting their own hauler. It also asks the Council to re-open the motion and allow residents to choose for themselves who will handle their garbage and recycling.

As it stands, a Council member would need to ask for the issue to be put on a meeting agenda in order to rescind city-wide pickup. That has yet to occur.

Schofield, who recently filed to run for mayor this spring against the incumbent, Treig Pronschinske, predicted people will reject city-wide pickup once it is enacted. Some have told her they will line up their garbage containers outside City Hall, Schofield said.

“I hate to call it a warning, but it’s just a preview of what I think is coming,” she told city leaders.

Schofield also claimed some people told her they wouldn’t sign the petition, even though they agreed with it, for fear of retaliation from the city.

Pronschinske said he appreciated the input people have been providing on city issues.

“We have a packed room every meeting, and I think it’s great,” he said.

Asking further questions about city-wide pickup plans, Donna Engen asked city leaders about additional fees for seniors and questioned the billing structure.

Seniors in the city who might struggle to get their garbage and recycling containers to the street will have the option to have their containers picked up at their garage door, but it could come with an additional fee.

City administrator Dan Lauersdorf said the city is working with the county’s aging and disability resource center to get that extra cost covered somehow. Otherwise, city workers could assist local seniors with their containers, Lauersdorf said.

Engen also asked why City Hall would be handling the billing for Durand Sanitation.

City leaders explained that utility bills are already figured at City Hall, and the city-wide pickup charge will essentially replace the current recycling fee. Beyond some initial setup costs, Pronschinske and Lauersdorf agreed that billing for city-wide pickup would come with little additional administrative work.

Lauersdorf also pointed out that obtaining cheaper rates—$40 vs. $78 for a 65-gallon garbage container—in return for handling the quarterly billing at City Hall was another motivating factor.

Liability to homeowners and the city for the cost of replacing/repairing damaged containers was also questioned by Engen.

Pronschinske responded that the city’s liability is likely to be less under city-wide pickup since city employees won’t be hauling recyclables any longer. He also said residents will simply have to be responsible for taking care of their containers.

Smith returns pay to city from Dec. 16 meeting

As the Council set about approving the minutes from recent Council and committee meetings, councilwoman Lynn Smith asked that the Dec. 16 Council meeting, during which members voted 4-3 to rescind the police department’s participation in an OWI Task Force grant, be reclassified as an emergency Council meeting rather than a special meeting.

Smith then handed her paycheck from that meeting back to city treasurer Dawn Moy, explaining that she believed that Dec. 16 session was an “illegal meeting” and she wanted no part of being paid for it.

Referencing the Handbook for Wisconsin Municipal Officials, Smith said she didn’t believe Council members or city residents had 24 hours notice and that the agenda didn’t meet the definition of an emergency meeting, which is reserved for disaster-type situations such as a flood. Additionally, two of the Council members who voted on the Task Force grant have a conflict of interest on the subject, Smith claimed.

Councilman David Holden, who pursued organizing the Dec. 16 meeting by obtaining four signatures from Council members, explained that he was trying to follow through with concerns by constituents in his ward. Bar owners felt they may need to close on New Year’s Eve, Holden said, which was to be the second December date for additional traffic enforcement by the Mondovi Police Department.

Since there were no more full Council meetings scheduled for the rest of last month, Holden felt it would be a good idea to pursue holding one on the same night the personnel committee was already scheduled to meet on Dec. 16.

However, a few city leaders said they barely had 24 hours notice, much less the general public having a chance to learn of the meeting.

Pronschinske said he didn’t know anything about the meeting until he returned home around 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 15. He told the Council he was frustrated by that lack of communication, noting that if a resident had asked him about it he wouldn’t have been able to answer their questions.

Additionally, councilman Mike Krisik said he thought the purpose of the Dec. 16 meeting was to discuss the grant. Instead, the meeting felt like a “mob” and people’s minds were already made up on the matter, Krisik said.

“I didn’t appreciate that short of notice,” Pronschinske said. “If we want to talk about working together, that is the perfect example of disrespect from the city.”

On the topic of respect, Krisik called out councilman Jerry Rud, accusing him of contributing to strife in the city by publicly attacking Mayor Pronschinske and fellow Council members.

“You have a personal agenda,” Krisik told Rud. “You show no respect to any other member and it’s getting sickening.”

Krisik became agitated as the Council reviewed minutes from its Dec. 8 regular meeting, where Rud asked Smith where she went when she excused herself from taking part in a Council conversation. 

Rud left the room during that same conversation, which concerned paying out comp time from 2015. Smith had seated herself with the audience, again pointing to Handbook guidelines.

Rud then mentioned contacting the Wisconsin Attorney General’s Office regarding conflict of interest, which visibly aggravated Krisik and sparked the verbal exchange with Rud.

City looking to improve website

In other conversation that night, city leaders viewed a proposal for 2016 from Marketing Edge LLC, owned by Emily Matchey, for continued website maintenance.

Referencing comments he has heard from residents who say the city website is “sub-par,” Pronschinske said it is important to get information on city government happenings to the public.

Smith agreed and asked that the city pursue other options for website maintenance to see what else could be done.

Lauersdorf said he wasn’t aware of any other options besides Marketing Edge, but he agreed to look into it.

The proposal from Marketing Edge asks for $75 per hour, billing in fourths of hours, with no minimum charge for services. A cap of $2,000 annually for website maintenance tasks was requested by the city, which would include up to 27 hours of services.

The City of Mondovi website was also mentioned as a way to spur business growth in the city, which was also discussed that night.

Local business owner Bobby Lubinsky asked if the city had a plan for growing business in Mondovi.

Pronschinske said “the door is open” to businesses that would like to come to the city, but the city should be doing more to attract opportunities.

At a business seminar he recently attended in Eau Claire, Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch called Mondovi “a bedroom city,” Pronschinske said, where people live in Mondovi but go elsewhere, like Eau Claire, to work every day.

“We need to find a way to change that,” Pronschinske said. “We have to be friendly to business in this city.”

Improving city parks would be a key way to make the city more attractive, Pronschinske said, in addition to finding ways for city residents to “get along and work together.”

Advertising available sites for business opportunities on the city website could be one way to draw in takers in addition to stepping up the overall content of the website to show what the city has to offer, city leaders agreed.

In other business that night, the Council approved the following:

• pursue purchasing used sewer jetter truck from City of Eau Claire at an estimated cost of $25,000

• revoke mayor’s $75 monthly stipend for mileage in favor of reimbursing vehicle use for city business at the federal rate in line with other city employees

• deny request from Mondovi Housing Authority to vacate Short St. (between Buffalo St. and Highland Ave.) due to concerns regarding city utilities

• move forward with pursuing changes to chapter 9 and 10 city ordinances regarding orderly conduct by sending to city attorney to draft changes prior to final approval by Council

• deny request by Buffalo/Pepin Livestock Shipping Association to waive rental fee for event at the Marten Center on March 28, 2016

• pursue purchasing new chairs, ideally through a local business, for City Council chambers for use by Council and meeting attendees at an amount not to exceed $3,000

• contract for professional services with SEH for environmental monitoring services and street improvement projects for 2016

• operator license for Kaylee J. Caturia (Hansen’s IGA)