EM Village wants 1 meeting per month not 2
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
By LeAnn R. Ralph
ELK MOUND — The Elk Mound Village Board has approved holding one meeting per month on the third Monday, rather than two meetings on the first and third Monday.
Changing the number of meetings per month would require an ordinance change, specifically Section 2-2-9, said Terry Stamm, village president, at the November 6 meeting of the Elk Mound Village Board.
That section of the village’s ordinances reads, “Regular meetings of the Village Board shall be held the first and third Monday of each calendar month.”
If the village board holds one meeting per month, and another meeting is needed, the village president could call a special meeting or two trustees could call for a special meeting, Stamm said.
The Colfax Village Board has two meetings per month, but Colfax has more permits and licenses to issue than Elk Mound does, he said.
Pat Hahn, village trustee, who served as the village clerk for 40 years, suggested leaving the ordinance alone for a year, and then if there are meetings where there is only one agenda item, Stamm and Karin Wolf, current clerk-treasurer, could cancel the meeting.
If, after a year, there are many instances of cancelled meetings, then consider changing the ordinance, she said.
Savings
How difficult is it to change the ordinance? asked Tim Benjamin, village trustee.
Benjamin said he feared that if the village board waited a year, the meetings would still be held, and there would be many meetings with one or just a few items on the agenda requiring a vote of the village board.
Holding one meeting per month would save $4,500 per year, he said.
If the number of meetings was reduced, the single monthly meeting should be on the third Monday because of the invoices that have to be paid, Stamm said.
If the village board meets once a month, “that’s half our shortfall” for the 2024 budget, Benjamin said, adding, that if the village board ends up calling special meetings, “so be it.”
The meetings will be longer, most likely, but then it would feel more justified to receive the pay for the meeting, he said.
Stamm noted that on the day of the village board meeting, by the time the meeting was convened, he had been at the village hall for five hours and said that he often is at the village hall for an hour or two a day.
“But, I’m a team player, and I will go along with what the board wants to do,” he said.
Licenses
Benjamin also wondered why the village board was approving bartender operator’s licenses.
There has not been a single licensing situation the village board has denied, he said.
The police chief has recommended that some licenses not be issued, but the village board has approved them, Benjamin said, asking why the village board was spending time approving licenses.
Elk Mound has an ordinance that states the village board must approve the licenses, Hahn said.
State statute also requires the village board to approve the licenses, said Elk Mound Police Chief Chad Weinberger.
It’s also part of a democracy to have the board approve licenses, Hahn said.
Discussions
There are so many items on the agendas that must be discussed, and village board members must respect the opinions of all village board members, Stamm said.
There are two meetings each month so items can be discussed in depth, and then for some items, village board members need a couple of weeks to think about the agenda items before making a decision, he said.
When the Colfax Village Board was considering meeting only once a month instead of twice a month a few years ago, the Colfax Messenger reported that several board members expressed concern that if there was an issue a village resident wanted to have addressed, the resident could wait for almost six weeks, depending on the month, for the village board to meet again.
Stamm said he could understand both sides of the issue of whether to have two meetings per month or reduce the frequency to one meeting per month.
If no one shows up for a meeting, the meeting would not be held for the lack of a quorum, Hahn noted.
During January and February, there is usually less business for the village board to consider, Stamm said,
Maybe after January, February and March, the village board would need extra meetings if the meeting schedule is reduced to one time per month, said Cynthia Abraham, village trustee.
In December, the village board could have the first meeting in January on the agenda, and if it looks like there will be little business, the meeting could be cancelled and then not rescheduled, Stamm said.
That would be awkward and inefficient, Benjamin said.
There would still be the ability to hold a special meeting, Stamm said.
Special meetings
One village board member asked about the notice that would be needed for a special meeting.
A special meeting needs 48 hours of notice, but an emergency meeting can be held in two hours, Police Chief Weinberger said.
Special meetings, according to the village’s ordinance, can be held in 24 hours, Stamm said.
Section 2-2-10 (a) of the village’s ordinances states, “Special meetings of the village board can be called by the village president, or by two trustees, filing a request with the village clerk treasurer at least 24 hours prior to the time specified for such meeting.”
The Elk Mound Village Board approved a motion to change the meeting frequency to one meeting on the third Monday of each month, beginning in January, and changing the ordinance to reflect the change in the number of meetings, on a vote of six “yes” to one “no.”
Terry Stamm voted against the motion.
Voting in favor of the motion were village trustees Cynthia Abraham, Bob Bachman, Tim Benjamin, Pat Hahn, Joyce Price and Patrick Lien.
Ordinance and state law
While the village board does have the authority to set the salaries for elected officials, according to Elk Mound’s ordinances, Section 2-2-8, the village board cannot change the salaries during the elected officials’ terms in office.
The ordinance references Wisconsin state statute Sec. 61.32, which authorizes village officials to set salaries for elected officials.
State law also does not allow the compensation for village board members to be changed during their terms in office.
According to state Statute 61.193, “the compensation for an elective village office shall be established before the earliest time for filing nomination papers for the office or, if nomination papers are not used, before the caucus date determined under s.8.05(1)(a). After that time or date, no change may be made in the compensation for the office that applies to the term of office for which the deadline or date applies. The compensation established for an elective office remains in effect for ensuing terms unless changed.”
In December of 2021, the Colfax Village Board discussed holding one meeting per month instead of two meetings, and instead of being compensated $20 per meeting for two meetings per month, village board members would be compensated $40 for one meeting.
Several village board members expressed concern that to Colfax residents, it would appear as if they had given themselves a pay raise.
Anders Helquist of the law firm Weld Riley e-mailed a response to questions from Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer, dated December 30, 2021, explaining what is included in current state law.
For the Colfax Village Board’s proposal, the issue was not whether the pay was increased or decreased or stayed the same, but rather, that the Colfax Village Board would be changing the compensation during the term in office, which is not allowed by state law under any circumstances.
The Colfax Village Board ultimately decided to keep the schedule of two meetings per month.
Split compensation
In the April of 2023 election, four positions were up for election on the Elk Mound Village Board.
According to state law, the compensation for those four positions could be changed in April of 2025 after the current term is completed and another election has been held, as long as the change was approved before candidates could legally start circulating nomination papers for the April of 2025 election on December 1, 2024.
Three Elk Mound Village Board members will be up for election in April of 2024, so their compensation could be changed in April of 2024, if the village board changes the amount of compensation before December 1.
Instead of cutting the compensation in half for the entire village board, the compensation could be reduced for three board members after the April of 2024 election, while the remaining four village board members would have to remain at the same rate until April of 2025.
