Kiel council adopts package of municipal code changes, approves police staffing moves and ends shared court agreement

Kiel City Council members adopted a package of municipal code changes, approved personnel moves in the police department, voted to end a shared municipal-court agreement and authorized equipment and routine administrative spending at their meeting.

The council voted unanimously on a slate of ordinances — Nos. 6-22 through 6-30 — that update rules on signage, city purchasing, prohibitions on sexting, tree clearance and maintenance, operation of electric bicycles, consolidation of outdoor-premises and special-events permitting, and weight limits on city streets. Council members recorded a 6-0 vote on each ordinance.

Why it matters: the ordinance package is intended to clarify enforcement and streamline permitting, council members said. For example, changes to the city’s sign rules specify that moving a sign on a property does not reset time-based limitations; tree-code amendments raise the required clearance above rights-of-way; and a rewritten weight-limit ordinance replaces a conflicting earlier code to make enforcement clearer for traffic that affects residential streets.

On public-safety staffing, the council approved making Officer Dylan Nemmer a full-time Kiel police officer effective Aug. 22, 2025. The council record indicates Nemmer completed required background checks and is expected to finish field training by the proposed effective date. The council also approved hiring Emma Strzlichke as a part-time officer effective immediately upon meeting the conditions in her offer of employment. Both personnel decisions were approved by voice vote.

The council voted to terminate the city’s joint municipal court agreement with the partnering jurisdiction; the termination notice will take effect Feb. 13, 2026. City staff said the police chief and court clerk, Kelly Jorgensen, requested the termination following years of operational issues that were discussed previously at committee meetings. The council directed that a termination letter be issued consistent with the six-month notice timeline discussed at the meeting.

The council authorized the purchase of a 12-foot “cage” snow pusher box for the Kiel wastewater treatment plant at a recorded cost of $23,000, to be paid from the wastewater treatment equipment replacement fund. Meeting notes say the purchase is from the vendor identified in the agenda packet; the packet name appears as “Miller Adford and Risper Incorporated” in the transcript materials.

Other administrative actions approved by unanimous vote included travel and training requests (court clerk Kelly Jorgensen to attend a court seminar in the Wisconsin Dells in October; the city administrator to attend the Wisconsin League of Municipalities conference in Milwaukee Sept. 17–19; the city clerk and deputy clerk to attend election training at UW–Green Bay in October); acceptance of several private donations to the Kiel Fire Department Training Tower fund (donations cited in the minutes: $500 from the Asian Lion Club, $1,000 from Rick’s Bakery, and $100 from Jordan and Lynette Brill); and routine financial approvals including receipts and disbursements and payment of city bills.

The council chair and staff noted the ordinance changes and other items had been discussed previously in ordinance committee and committee-of-the-whole meetings. Several council members thanked committee members and staff for the work that led to the consolidated and clarified code language.

No formal legal citations or external approvals were referenced for these actions in the meeting record; where the agenda package documented a funding source, the council referenced the city’s replacement equipment fund for the wastewater purchase. The termination of the joint municipal court agreement was described as an internal contractual matter; the council set the effective date for the end of the agreement and directed staff to send notice in accordance with the six-month notice period discussed at the meeting.

The council took no executive-session actions during the items recorded in the transcript excerpt provided.