Council adopts resolution clarifying Muskego City's role with Lake Denoon Lake District on fee payments

The Muskego City Common Council voted to adopt Resolution 0552026, which clarifies the roles and responsibilities of the city and the Lake Denoon Lake District regarding equitable lake-district fee payments. Committee member (speaker7) moved the resolution and the chair seconded; the motion passed by voice vote after a period of discussion about how the city's contribution is calculated.

Committee member (speaker6) questioned how the five-year average used in the district's budgeting interacts with the city's contribution and whether the cap could be revisited if inflation or shifting budget years lower the average. "So from what I understand with that, if you were to take that 5 year budget and average it out, the amount they're receiving from the city is more than 15% of that," Committee member (speaker6) said, asking what process would allow the council to reconsider the figure. The chair responded that "this resolution kind of spells our policy on it" and noted that changes to the city's contribution would be treated as a budgetary matter that any member could bring forward during budget sessions.

Council members also discussed district boundaries and growth: the chair said expansion of the Little Muskego area to include new subdivisions (for example, Kirkland Crossing) increases household counts and therefore revenue for the district. Committee member (speaker5) added that the small lake's contribution has been capped since 2019 or 2020 and that the district is currently experiencing a negative budgetary effect relative to the cap. The council approved the resolution, and the chair advised members that revisiting the cap would require a formal budget action in a future session.