My apologies for the late posting on this, I was away for the weekend and I simply ran out of time.

The agenda for the May 18th Common Council Meeting is available on the City's website. It is a fairly light agenda and the Council packet really does not have a lot to offer on any of the agenda items.

Judge Glojek has three items, two relating to forfeiture fines, one to increase the amount and another to hire a collection agency. The third item has to do with an Illegal Alien ordinance. I do not have any additional information on any of these items.

Item 7 on the agenda is the recommendation from the HR Committee to create three Lieutenant positions within the department. The positions would be staffed by existing personnel so there would be no increase in full time positions. The positions would free the Division Chiefs of some of the direct supervision as well as providing for accountability on the fire grounds.

As with many areas around the lake, there are parking issues. Item 8 on the agenda is specifically about issues that have arisen on Parkside Drive. We have received a number of complaints about illegally parked vehicles, many of them customers of Doc's Dry Dock which is a business in the middle of a residential area. The traffic ordinance currently has both the north and south side of Parkside as no parking, however it appears that in 2001, the Council ordered the signs removed, yet the ordinance was not changed. I have been in discussions with the Acting Police Chief and the Acting Fire Chief, and both are in agreement that because the road is narrow, a 30' right of way instead of the usual 66', street parking is a concern from a Public Safety point of view. I also understand the desire for residents to have places for guests to park. Alderman Enters and I met with both Chiefs last week and took a road trip to evaluate the situation and we have come up with a compromise. We will be proposing a staggered parking arrangement on the north side of the street. The south side is to remain no parking.

For the last open session item there is an informational update on the possibility of a renewed attempt at the state level to amend the State Constitution to allow for different tax rates for a merged municipality. It appears that Representative Scott Newcomer will be working with Representative Gordon Hintz to reintroduce a bipartisan bill for such a Constitutional amendment. If the effort was successful, the earliest it could be effective would be 2011 as it would need to pass two sessions of the legislature and a statewide referendum.