"The largest 5-year capital plan we’ve ever proposed."

Finance Director John Ruggini says the city's infrastructure has been underfunded for decades. Also, the police department wants to buy a BearCat.

→ The capital budget is a sort of complicated balancing act between what needs to be repaired or replaced, what other things it would make sense to repair and replace at the same time, and what other people will give you money to repair and replace. It gets even more complicated, because sometimes infrastructure needs to be replaced not because it’s worn out but because it’s undersized relative to current needs or because flood-plains have shifted or because you’re not replacing but adding something entirely new that no one ever cared about before—like bike lanes and pedestrian walkways.

Ideally, all these things would line up perfectly and the roads would wear out at exactly the same time as the sewer pipes running underneath them and you could save a lot of time and money by doing both at the same time. Or, the state and federal government would give you grants to repair and replace exactly the things that you wanted to repair and replace in exactly the sequence you wanted to repair and replace them in. Or, if you have 75 miles of sewer pipe that lasts for 75 years, you could just make sure to replace 1 mile per year and, voila! like the ship of Theseus, every 75 years you have an entirely new sewer system.

But, as the city’s Finance Director John Ruggini said during the Tuesday’s Financial Affairs committee meeting:

It doesn't take into account that the city wasn't built in a linear fashion. You know, we didn't put one mile of sanitary sewer in the ground every year. It was built in bubbles. And we're unfortunately—as a generation—hitting the bubble when a lot of the infrastructure is expired.

What’s more, “the city has been underfunding it’s infrastructure probably since the 1970s,” he said. “So, the deferred maintenance is probably on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars.”

One useful slide included a picture of what should have been spent each year on infrastructure improvement from 1998-2011 (approximately $26.6 million per year) compared to what was actually spent during that time (approximately $8.6 million per year):

Hence what Mr. Ruggini described as, “the largest 5-year capital plan we’ve ever proposed.”

Forgive the poor screenshot:

While spending for capital improvements is estimated to have been about $10 million in 2022, the city projects spending close to $30 million in 2023 and similar or larger amounts each year through 2027. Total spending over the next 5 years is projected to be $171 million dollars and this does not include an additional $34 million in grants that aren’t shown. Some of this money will come from the state or federal government—ARPA funds, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Surface Transportation program—some will come from revenue generated by the storm, water, sanitary, and (proposed) transportation utilities. Some comes from TIF revenue, special assessments (the bill you get when the city re-paves the road in front of your house) and the property tax levy.

Over the next five years, the city plans to dedicate tens of millions of dollars to repaving major arterial roads, replacing aging sewers, installing solar panels for various public buildings, making utility improvements to the Schoonmaker sewershed, and partially funding renovations to City Hall and the public library.

During the meeting, City Engineer Bill Wehrly also asked the Financial Affairs committee to recommend approval of several agreements with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT). Two would offset the costs to reconstruct both bridges that span the Menomonee River along North Avenue. WisDOT would provide $23.7 million dollars to replace the current bridges with higher ones that won’t be “overtopped” during a 100-year flood. The city would cover the remaining $4.7 million dollars plus any costs for related water and sewer work. Construction is anticipated to begin in 2027 or 2028

In the third, the state would agree to cover most of the $7.9 million dollar cost of resurfacing Blue Mound Road from 66th to 106th Streets. The city would pay the remaining $200,000 dollars. Construction is anticipated to begin in 2028

Finally, the Director of Public Works David Simpson requested the committee’s approval to bypass the competitive bidding process and approve a $215,000 design contract with architecture firm Kahler Slater to renovate parts of the Muellner building in Hart Park. Funding for the $3 million dollar project will come from the Wauwatosa Curling Club, the city’s Tourism Commission, and previously allocated ARPA funds.

The Financial Affairs committee unanimously recommended approval of the proposals related to the North Avenue bridges, Blue Mound Road resurfacing, and Mueller building renovation design fee for approval.

They will discuss the remainder of the 2023-2027 Capital Improvement Plan and vote on it at their next meeting.

→ One final item in the 2023 Capital Improvement plan was a $300,000 Lenco Bearcat G2 Rescue Vehicle for the police department. It looks like this:

Source

Although no one at the meeting seemed dead-set against the purchase, there might have been like, a lot of angry emails or something, because various alders, members of the public, and WPD officers praised the vehicle, emphasized all the great things they could do with it, and repeated over and over, “This is not a tank. This is not a tank.”

A tank. Notice large number of wheels with tracks, giant flame-spewing 120mm cannon, and lack of windows.

One member of the public said that “I think $300,000 is a small amount of money to pay for the life of one of our officers,” and that other alternatives like using a snowplow to provide cover during a shootout—as the poor BearCat-bereft police in Brookfield were forced to do recently—is much worse.

Ald. Margaret Arney said that the police department and the city need to help people understand why this is important and that “this is not a tank.” Otherwise, she fears, they will treat it as a symbol of the divide between the police and the community. “I don’t want anybody to unnecessarily lose their life because we’re trying to use a snowplow when we should have had a BearCat.”

Chief of Police James MacGillis described it as a rescue vehicle that “looks like an ambulance with armor on it,” will last 10-15 years, and the city should have had years ago. It can be used to insert officers, render care to the wounded, help serve warrants in dangerous situations, and rescue people during flooding. Also: “One thing I want to emphasize. It is not a tank.”

Unfortunately, Ald. Dolan didn’t seem to get the message that everyone was supposed to put as much conceptual distance between tanks and BearCats as possible. When she was called on to speak she immediately made a reference to the war in Ukraine and how “they didn’t have enough tanks” and how terrible it was not to “have what you need to do your job.”

Ald. Lowe said that he’s happy to support everything the police department asks for including the new roof, solar panels, and other renovations, “with the exception of the BearCat. I do want to learn about it,” he said, “I do want to know all of the uses of it. Because when I look at that—and I think when a lot of the residents look at that—they do look at that as a vehicle that is solely used at protests […] We did have literally military vehicles at protests. That are used in wars.”

Earlier in the discussion a member of the public had said that it could be useful during mass shootings but Ald. Lowe was skeptical:

Most of the time when I see a mass shooting, nine out of ten times it’s a White individual with no scars and no injuries being handcuffed, taken to the back of the vehicle and sometimes being taken to Burger King, in the case of the Dylann Roof story from Carolina a couple years back where he was taken to Burger King before going to jail. So, no, I don't see this as the be-all-end-all vehicle to stop mass shootings in America.

The Chair of the Financial Affairs committee, Ald. Moldenhauer, thanked everyone for the “very valuable and informative discussion.”

The BearCat will be voted on, along with the rest of the Capital Improvement Plan, at the next Financial Affairs committee meeting.