Village attorney says Elk Mound Village Board can go to one meeting per month
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
ELK MOUND — In the opinion of the Elk Mound village attorney, the village board can reduce the number of meetings per month because even though trustees would be paid less , the compensation is not being reduced.
The Elk Mound Village Board, at the February 6 meeting, considered a memorandum from Jason Brasch of Bakke Norman, and then agreed to place the number of meetings per month to be changed by ordinance on the agenda for the next village board meeting.
According to the Bakke Norman website, Brasch’s practice areas are real estate, estate planning, business transactions, and probate and succession planning.
The website does not list municipal law as an area of practice for Brasch.
In his memo, Brasch cited Elk Mound ordinance Section 2-2-9, which refers to regular meetings of the Elk Mound Village Board on the first and third Monday of each month.
Elk Mound ordinance Section 2-2-8 actually refers to salaries paid to the village president, village trustees and other village officials.
Brasch’s memo refers to the current village board pay set by a motion approved at the February 2, 2010, village board meeting as $50 per board meeting and $10 per committee meeting for village trustees, and $75 per board meeting and $15 per committee meeting for the village president.
The motion from 2010 states that trustees will be paid approximately $1,200 per year, and the village president will be paid approximately $1,800 per year.
The rationale for the motion made by the Elk Mound Village Board at the November 6, 2023, meeting to hold only one meeting per month was to reduce the pay for the village trustees and the village president by half to save money and help balance the 2024 budget.
Approximately
The use of the word “approximately” in the [2010] motion “cannot be interpreted to set a fixed salary for Board Members or the Village President,” Brasch wrote.
Wisconsin state statute 66.0505 prohibits changes in compensation paid to a village board member during the board member’s term in office. “However, a change in the number of Village Board meetings is not a change in the compensation, even though it may ultimately result in Board members receiving less compensation,” the memo states.
“If the Village chooses to reduce the number of monthly meetings, it is not changing the per diem amount or rate paid to the Board members; it is simply changing the amount of time necessary to devote to service the village and discharge of duties,” Brasch wrote.
Since the village board would be meeting only one time per month instead of two, the memo seems to assume village board trustees and the village president would spend less time on their village duties. For example, if the village board only meets one time per month, then village residents presumably would call their elected representatives half as many times as they would if the board were to meet two times per month.
The memo also seems to assume that village board trustees and the village president do not do any work outside of the village board meeting, such as reviewing village board packets prior to the meeting or conducting any other research that might inform them on the issues that will be coming before them for a vote.
By ordinance
As previously noted, Brasch does not refer to Elk Mound ordinance 2-2-8, which states “The village president and other trustees who make up the village board, whether operating under general or special law, made by majority vote of all members of the village board determine the salary to be paid the president, trustees, and other village officials. Salaries heretofore established shall so remain until changed by ordinance, and shall not be increased or diminished during their terms of office.”
Brasch’s memo does not discuss the fact that the Elk Mound Village Board voted to change ordinance 2-2-9 on November 6, 2023, concerning frequency of meetings, but did not act on changing ordinance 2-2-8 which refers to salaries for the village president and village trustees.
Boards typically consider changes to ordinances at one meeting, and then at a subsequent meeting, approve the ordinance in its final form as amended after they have had the period of time between meetings to consider the amendments to the ordinance.
If a village ordinance includes a penalty or a forfeiture, the ordinance must then be published as a Class I notice in a newspaper or posted in three public places, according to state requirements for publication.
No publication is required if there is no penalty or forfeiture provision, but the village must include the record of motions, votes and ordinance adoption in meeting minutes.
2010
The meeting minutes from February 2, 2010, do not include any reference to the ordinance being changed, as is required by the village’s ordinance on setting salaries for the village president and village trustees.
The meeting pay approved at the 2010 meeting is not included in Section 2-2-8 of the ordinances as published on the Elk Mound website, and the motion is not referenced in Section 2-2-8.
Elk Mound ordinance 2-2-8 refers to the salary to be paid to the village president, village trustees and other officials and does not refer to “pay per meeting.”
Salary
According to Wisconsin statute 61.32, “the president and board of trustees of any village, whether operating under general or special law, may by a three-fourths vote of all the members of the village board determine that a salary be paid the president and trustees.”
A salary is defined as a fixed amount of money that is paid to an employee regardless of the number of hours worked per week.
Elk Mound ordinance 2-2-8 echoes the language included in state statute and references state statute 61.32.
The Elk Mound Village Board has seven members, so a three-quarters vote would require six members of the board to vote in favor of changing the salary.
The Elk Mound Village Board, at the November 6, 2023, meeting, on a vote of six “yes” to one “no,” voted to change the frequency of meetings under ordinance 2-2-9 but did not vote on the salaries of village officials under ordinance 2-2-8.
State statute also refers to setting salaries by resolution or by ordinance and refers to establishing “the total annual compensation.”
In addition to not referring to an ordinance amendment in the February 2, 2010, motion, the motion also does not refer to adopting a resolution to set the board members’ salaries.
According to state statute 59.22, “The board shall, before the earliest time for filing nomination papers for any elective office … establish the total annual compensation … by resolution or ordinance, on a basis of straight salary, fees, or part salary and part fees, and if the compensation established is a salary, or part salary and part fees, it shall be in lieu of all fees, including per diem and other forms of compensation for services rendered, except those specifically reserved to the officer in the resolution or ordinance. The compensation established shall not be increased nor diminished during the officer’s term and shall remain for ensuing terms unless changed by the board.”
The statute refers to the “earliest time for filing nomination papers.” For village board members, nomination papers can be taken on out on December 1 before the election year, and if a candidate were to gather the required number of signatures on December 1 and turned in all the paperwork on December 1, the candidate would have filed for candidacy on December 1.
The deadline for filing nomination papers and other paperwork is the first Tuesday in January.
Three incumbents will be running for three positions on the Elk Mound Village Board in the April election: Cynthia Abraham, Tim Benjamin and Pat Lien.
The Elk Mound Village Board meets next on February 20 rather than the regularly scheduled meeting date of February 19 since February 19 is a holiday (Presidents’ Day) for village employees.
The village board is expected to consider taking action on the frequency of meetings at the February 20 meeting
