Special finance committee approves corrected minutes after public complaint about Feb. 11 meeting

At a special finance committee meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025, members reviewed and approved corrections to 19 sets of municipal minutes and voted to remove three previously distributed minute packets from the meeting packet after public complaints about how a Feb. 11, 2025, session was handled.

Greg White, a resident who began public comment, said the Feb. 11 session called to allow citizens to ask questions about the 2025 budget instead shifted to a discussion about water and an auditor error, leaving residents without the promised opportunity to question the budget. “It was supposed to be on the budget,” White said. “We were denied their opportunity to redress their government.”

The committee spent the meeting working through a long list of distributed minutes. A committee member who identified herself as the chair of the health and safety committee told the panel she had prepared outstanding minutes for several committees and had circulated corrections in advance. She urged that edits be inserted where the draft minutes omitted speakers, motions or specific language and cited several dates that required wording changes, including May 22 (discussion of a bratwurst festival), November entries and the tax budget resolution language.

The committee discussed duplicate or previously approved entries for March 6, April 3 and May 8 and moved to remove those three dates from the packet. The motion, made during the meeting and announced as “motion by Christopher Maritz, second by the chair,” was put to a voice vote and carried.

A subsequent motion to accept the remaining minutes as amended also passed on a verbal vote. Committee members flagged at least one set of minutes that remained outstanding for later correction—most notably minutes for a Sept. 18 meeting that committee members said were missing from the packet and required additional language to reflect public participation.

White also alleged that the committee and council had approved payment to “Miss Wise” for unused time despite her not doing the work; he asked that the minutes reflect accountability. Committee members noted that the payment had appeared in committee records and been forwarded for council approval; the meeting record shows committee discussion and an earlier committee approval as the basis for that payment being included in the council packet.

Throughout the review, members traded specific wording corrections: inserting who made motions, clarifying whether administration or legislation determined festival fees, and correcting typographical errors in recorded motions and titles (for example, the tax budget entry). The health and safety committee chair repeatedly requested that minutes include full and accurate attributions for public commenters and motions.

Chair remarks closed the formal business: after completing the votes on the minutes, the chair asked whether there was any further public participation. With none offered, the meeting was adjourned at 10:24 a.m.

The committee directed staff to follow up on the outstanding September minutes and to confirm with the administration what services the city will provide to the Bratwurst Festival and whether any additional legislation is needed. No further actions on personnel pay were decided at the meeting; White’s complaint about payment to the clerk was recorded in the public-comment record and referenced in committee discussion.