Council News
Summary of Shorewood City Council Meeting – Feb. 11, 2025
To increase transparency and resident education, below is a quick summary of the Shorewood City Council meeting of February 11, 2025.
Links to the meeting video have been provided for each item.
SeeClickFix.com: Saying Goodbye
Beginning in 2025, Shorewood switched its citizen reporting mechanism from SeeClickFix to Citizen Request Tracker® (CRT).
The cost savings will be $5k+ per year and removes a “citizen facing” product in favor of one much more controlled.
What’s Your Beef?
Convincing residents to speak at a city council meeting on almost anything is a challenge, unless it directly affects their property. Explanations vary from busy schedules to general discomfort when speaking on camera.
Now there is another reason: A council member who implied he does not want to be bothered by people bringing their “beef” before the council.
Drilling Down on Municipal Water
On 11/25/2024 the Shorewood council hashed over the ongoing dilemma of the underwater municipal water fund.
It discussed incentives for residents, who have existing “stubs” to connect to the municipal water system. The council also laid out some ideas for a more “mandatory” approach.
Land Use Variance 1.0
Few people have reason to know about variances if they have not needed one.
The Shorewood City Council may want to allocate time to discuss an overall policy focusing on variances.
$7Million: Shorewood Spends BIG on Engineering Firm Bolton & Menk
Between January 2020 and July 2024 Bolton & Menk billed the City of Shorewood $6,968,361. That’s an average $126,697/mo. or $1,520,364 per year!
The amount of money billed by Bolton & Menk for engineering services in one single year is so staggering that the city could double the number of Public Works employees and still have money to hire 3-4 full time engineers.
Why did the City Council allow this to happen? You decide!
Just Answer the Question!
The draft minutes from the July 9 Shorewood Park Commission meeting have just been released. Two items, subtly related, stand out in the 22 pages of the document.
Confusion vs. Clarity
Arborvitae and a fence “erroneously” built in the city right-of-way (ROW) took up considerable time and energy at two Shorewood council meetings.
On May 28, because of vague language in the ordinance, the Council engaged in a confusing conversation, followed by an unusual 43 seconds of silence, when no motion was made to correct the issue of the matter.
Confusion, Disconnect and a Moment of Silence
Here is a summary of the May 28th Shorewood City Council Meeting. This included a presentation regarding Freeman Park and consideration of several controversial proposals.
