Checking in from Greater Sudbury, Canada

With traveling this far into Canada, I'm hoping to catch good views of the Northern Lights.

I'm enroute to Bay James Canada for a caribou hunt, and found a place with Internet access in Greater Sudbury, Canada, about halfway to our destination. I'm taking advantage of what from the map, appears to be one of the last cities of significant size. The city is surprisingly large, with a population over 150,000.

Thanks to the Internet, I was able to log on to the Post Crescent Web site this morning and read the article regarding pay increases to the Grand Chute administrative staff. I want to make a few comments.

The proposed pay increases in the 2008 budget actually called for all non-union employees to receive a cost of living increase of 3% and two step increases on the employee pay matrix, with each step being about 1.3%, for a total of 5.6%

The 4.3% increase figure used by the town is the average amount of increases this year. Raises go into effect on on each employee's anniversary date, causing the amount to be averaged down. Some employee increases were listed higher than the 4.3%, and some lower on the spreadsheet because of the date implemented, but all employees were scheduled to receive an across the board COLA and two step increase.

The 5.6% increase gave me concerns while budget sessions were ongoing because of state imposed tax levy limits that were projected. I had asked that all payroll line items in the budget be rescinded until a budget workshop could be held. Professor Stephen Hintz spoke to the board about his compensation study done in 2006. The study did find Grand Chute administrative employees salaries were below some other municipalities, but Prof. Hintz also indicated his job was to identify the salary discrepancies, and that it was the Town Board's decision on what to do with this information. Prof. Hintz also agreed that when pay increases start outweighing spending caps, the money has to come from somewhere, and ultimately takes away from capital improvements or services, such as hiring new police officers or firefighters.

The state imposed tax levy limit for this year's budget is 3.86%. Next year's limit is 2.0%

With these kind of levy limits, the town needs to look at reducing spending, and that starts with salaries, wages and benefits, which are a large part of the budget. We need to prove to Grand Chute residents that we are being fiscally responsible within our departments, before going to referendum to fill public safety positions. The budget will be finalized at the December 4th town board meeting.

For now, it's good bye from Canada, the hunting party is ready to head out and go further north.

Until next week. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Agenda 11/20 Town Board meeting

The agenda for the November 20th Town Board meeting is available for download and review. There will also be public hearings on the 2008 Proposed Budgets for the Sanitarty Districts and Grand Chute at 7pm. A special town meeting will follow immediately after the public hearings to approve the 2008 Highway expenditures in excess of $610,000 as required by Wisconsin state statutes, and an advisory vote on proposed property tax levy overrides. The regular Town Board meeting will follow.

Office hours cancelled Nov. 26th

Some of you may have noticed I've been sporting a beard these last couple weeks. It's the annual November fashion craze for many hunters in the Wisconsin, myself included. This year, I've been growing the beard in a little thicker, as my Thanksgiving hunting journey will take me up near the arctic circle in Canada. They tell me there's caribou to be found. Postings will be sparse the next couple weeks, and office hours are cancelled Nov. 26th while I'm in search of the big one.

Grand Chute not first with spending referendum

The following is an email Town Supervisors were forwarded from Weston Village Finance Director John Jacobs this morning in response to the Post-Crescent article "Grand Chute could be first in state to bust spending cap ". While the article does an excellent job outlining difficulties growing communities face with state imposed tax levy limits, it appears Grand Chute is not, in fact, the first Wisconsin community to bring spending limits to referendum.

I am just responding to this article because there have been some communities that have exercised using a referendum since the 2005 original spending cap limits were ordered by the State. The Town of Grand Chute is NOT the first community in the State of Wisconsin to exercise a referendum for exceeding the State spending limits.

The Village of Weston held a November 2006 referendum to add a 3rd EMS/Fire Crew to the Weston Fire Department in budget year 2007. The referendum was approved by the voters by a 55/45 vote. Therefore, we added $226,636 over the spending cap limit for budget year 2007, in order to add the additional service to our Budget. By adding the 3rd EMS/Fire Crew in 2007, we now have 24/7 coverage for full-time EMS/Fire service. Before the referendum, we had only 2 full-time shifts providing 80 hours/week full-time service and the remaining 88 hours were covered by paid-on-call employees. The reason for the passing of the referendum was to significantly improve response time to taxpayers/residents so that all parts of the Village of Weston were covered under a 6-minute response time, 24 hours a day/7 days a week. The addition of the 3rd EMS crew has proved successful to meet that improved response time goal (which had sometimes been over 12-minutes, with solely using paid-on-call members during those other 88 hours a week before the referendum).

I just thought that Ed Lowe's story should be clarified, in that he did not check with the Department of Revenue to see how many communities have used the "referendum" during 2006 or 2007 to exceed the spending limits under the original 2005 law. All 1,900+ communities in Wisconsin are required to fill-out a spending limit/exception form in December each year to indicate and substantiate the dollar amount of their tax levy, and if it exceeds the State's spending limit for that individual community. I know that the Village of Weston is NOT the only community in Wisconsin who has ALREADY exercised the referendum option. Therefore, the Town of Grand Chute (by Fox River Mall) is not the first community in the State to use a referendum. I thought somebody should know that Ed Lowe's story appears to be extremely misleading, and was NOT fully researched to get all of the facts correct.

John Jacobs

Village of Weston, WI (Marathon County)

Finance Director/Treasurer

Paid-on-call firefighter applications being accepted

Applications for persons interested in joining the Grand Chute paid-on-call firefighter personnel are being acccepted throughout November 26. The employment application is available for download.

Name change in the works

All Things Grand Chute, the title for my blog, is going through a name change. You'll notice the new title is Grand Chute Town Talk. The Web site URL is still the same, but the new name matches my Town Talk newsletter* that is sent out to residents on an event-based schedule.

*Note, the Town Talk newsletter is a communication that is paid for by Travis Thyssen. No town funds are used for production or delivery of the newsletter.

October 16th meeting minutes available

Minutes from the October 16, 2007 Town Board meeting are available for download.

News updates

The Supervisor Thyssen in the News section has been updated.

Is annexation of Plamann Park really needed?

There has been an article in the Post-Crescent these last couple weeks about Grand Chute town officials asking Outagamie County to look into annexing Plamann Park to Appleton. What needs to be clarified is that "town officials" means Chairman Marsden and Administrator Rohloff, and not the town board. The general public probably doesn't realize that this issue has never been brought to the town board for review, discussion or vote. In fact, until the article was printed in the Post-Crescent, the annexation of Plamann Park had not been brought to my attention in any form of communication.

As the Post-Crescent reads, "But Plamann Park, which Outagamie County owns, is in Grand Chute, so when one of the hundreds of children who play Pop Warner football there gets hurt, it’s Grand Chute’s responsibility to respond."

The main concern of Chariman Marsden and Mr. Rohloff is the ability (or lack of) Grand Chute emergency response teams to adequately serve children playing in the Pop Warner fall football leagues at Plamann Park, and respond as quickly as emergency services could being dispatched from Appleton.

That being said, the town's request for annexation seems extreme, considering the new fire station being constructed next to the town hall will place Plamann Park within an eight minute response time. The station is slated for completion before the fall of 2009.

Taking safety issues into context, the Pop Warner season runs eight Saturdays beginning September till the end of October each year. High schools have EMTs at every football game. Why couldn't Grand Chute have two paid-on-call EMTs situated in a satellite suburban truck at Plamann Park during the games. Approximate costs would be $250 each Saturday. Discussions with the Pop Warner Football league would determine who would be responsible for the addtional costs.

Another solution includes a mutual aid agreement with the city of Appleton.

These alternative suggestions could have been examined if the issue had been brought to the attention of the town board. I will be expressing my opinions regarding this matter to the County Board before it's November meeting.

Special budget workshop to be held

The Town Board will be holding a special budget workshop this Thursday, at 3pm, to discuss what will be included for a possible public safety officer referendum, and to speak with Professor Stephen Hintz about his 2006 employee compensation study.

I made a motion (passed 4-1) at our last budget work session to rescind all salary line item increases in this year's budget until a workshop could be held for supervisors to ask questions regarding the study. I felt this was especially important, because, as your newly elected supervisor, I was not informed or given a copy of the study until I inquired about employee salary increases.

More information will be posted after the workshop.

November 6 meeting agenda

The agenda for the November 6 Town Board meeting is available for download.

Paid-on-call Firefighter training session

The Grand Chute Fire Department is hosting an informational session for those interested in becoming a paid-on-call firefighter on November 6, at 7pm. This session will take place at Station #1 at 2920 W. Highview Drive. Those attending will learn more about the department, the hiring process, the training required and the expectations of a paid-on-call firefighter. If you have questions before the meeting, please call the Grand Chute Fire Department at (920) 832-6050.

Paid-On-Call requirements include:

• 18 years of age or older
• Valid Wisconsin Drivers License
• No convictions for criminal activity
• Resident of the Town of Grand Chute (or live within two mile radius of the fire station)
• Participate in bi-monthly training drills
• Respond to minimum percentage of assigned calls at all hours.

Training and equipment is provided.