Monona committee accepts traffic-safety grants and asks council to cover state funding cuts

The Monona Public Safety Committee voted Feb. 26 to accept three Wisconsin traffic-safety grants for 2025 covering impaired driving, speed and seat-belt enforcement and recommended the City Council consider restoring local funds to cover reductions made by the state after a federal funding cut.

Alder (Alder) introduced the agenda item and said the department participates in a multi-jurisdiction traffic task force that coordinates seat-belt, speed and OWI enforcement with nearby suburban agencies. Lieutenant Kurt Wegel, the task-force administrator for Monona, briefed the committee on the awards and the operational effect of the reductions.

Wegel told the committee that the OWI grant was not reduced and that the city's allocation for that award is $5,000; the city must provide a 25% local match in officer on-duty time, which he described as approximately $1,250 in straight time. The committee discussed that the state reduced funding for the seat-belt and speed grants after a federal cut; the transcript records the seat-belt award moving from $5,000 to $2,500. Wegel said the department eliminated one month of grant deployments and reduced the number of monthly deployments in other months because of the smaller awards: "We eliminated the entire month," he said.

Committee members discussed operational consequences: fewer targeted deployments and a possible reduction in the visible deterrent effect of concentrated enforcement. Wegel said officers still report stop and traffic data to the state; the department can supply those metrics as part of the grant reporting, but the data were not presented at the meeting.

The committee approved a motion to accept the grants as offered and then passed a separate recommendation that the City Council restore the lost local funding to cover the reductions. The committee recorded the recommendation to the council to "restore the deficit" and voted to forward that recommendation; the transcript records the motion passing by voice vote, but the exact dollar figure discussed during the meeting is not clearly recorded in the available transcript and is therefore not specified here.

Members noted the state allocates funds it receives from the federal program and that the federal fiscal changes appear to have driven the state's reductions. Committee members also discussed the option of the council using general-fund dollars to make up the difference and noted the council could rescind such a restoration if federal funding returns.