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Council declines immediate approval of updated stormwater plan after procedural challenge; Public Works director briefs council
Summary
The council did not take up immediate approval of an updated stormwater management plan required by the DNR after a motion to suspend rules ran into a procedural two‑thirds threshold. Public Works Director Brad Broon summarized the plan and DNR grant funding.
The Monona City Council on May 19 declined to take up immediate approval of an updated stormwater management plan after a motion to suspend the rules encountered a point of order that the change required a two‑thirds majority.
Brad Broon, the city's Public Works director, told the council the update consolidates prior technical memos, incorporates recent stormwater modeling and addresses items the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources flagged in a 2020–21 audit. He said the update was completed with a DNR grant and that approving the plan would speed the city's DNR reimbursement for grant funding.
Broon described the document as a procedural and technical plan that establishes the city's pollutant‑reduction goals and formalizes responsibilities across staff and elected offices. ‘‘There is nothing earth shattering changing with this document,’’ Broon said, adding it is a state‑statute required document that the DNR periodically expects to be updated.
Council members who opposed suspending the rules said they wanted more public time to read the large document. After discussion about the procedural requirement, the council decided not to take the item out of order at the May 19 meeting; the plan remains scheduled for future consideration.
Broon urged council members to begin with the executive summary and offered to meet with alderpersons who wanted detailed explanations of modeling data and recommended projects. Council members suggested that small, informal gatherings of up to two alderpersons and Broon would not trigger public‑meeting notice requirements, but cautioned that larger group briefings would need public notice.
The plan is intended to guide work including the city's pending Kelly Place stormwater project and to help meet the city's phosphorus and suspended solids reduction obligations under DNR and EPA‑related programs. No final council vote on the plan occurred that night.
