Residents express concern about preliminary levy

At the City Council meeting the evening of Dec. 8, several Janesville residents expressed concern about the expected increase in their property taxes. Due to the rising costs, Mayor Andy Arnoldt explained that when the city passed its preliminary levy in September, the city decided to err on the side of caution, so it shot high.

 

 “As the months go on, we chisel away at different things and now we’re going to be under ten percent tonight,” Arnoldt stated.

 

City resident Allen Fetchenhier, who lives on West Allyn Street, asked why his property taxes increased by 32.7%. Mayor Andy Arndoldt responded the amounts on Fetchenhier’s statement were based on a preliminary city levy increase of around 15%; the final levy increase will actually be 10%. He suggested Fetchenhier could attend the county truth in taxation meeting set for Dec. 16.  

 

Fetchenheier also inquired how the city determines property taxes, if it was the end value of a home. Arnoldt answered the taxes are based on the city’s budget and what’s needed to maintain the flow of operations, but then the county sets how much each home is actually going to pay which is based off their value.

 

Later City Administrator Clinton Rogers presented the 2026 budget hearing required by law to have before the end of December every year and explained the general fund budget costs. He stated that operating costs for City Hall work out to $171 a year for each resident of the town.

 

Rogers suggested residents should consider all the services provided by the city and compare the $171 to other regular bills, for example, cable services. “It helps, I think, with residents to kind of understand where we’re sitting.” 

 

He thanked all the department heads and the council members for their help in determining the budget.

 

Next the council, with the exception of Maas, approved hiring Katelynne Kratz from Community Economic Development Associates (CEDA) as a full-time community development director, a position that has been open in the past few years.

 

“I have talked with Katelynne,” Rogers added. “She would be very interested in working here full-time… There is a very small budget impact by having Katelynne full-time, basically the biggest benefits would be to have a person in that chair five days a week. The other benefit would be, the regular planning and zoning duties that everybody else has been picking up and covering can be done by her.”

 

Maas inquired about the small budget impact and Arnoldt explained that by having Kratz for an extra two days instead of three, the budget would increase by $5,000 a year.

 

Council member Maas expressed concerns that Kratz might become less effective as the city planner if she were no longer connected with the larger resources of the CEDA organization, and so it might be better to leave her in the position as a consultant.

 

“As some of you might remember, we weren’t super excited with some of our CEDA representatives to start with,” Arnoldt stated. “Now there's no guarantee that even if we renew with CEDA, that Katelynne’s the one that stays here.”

 

As an option, Rogers said the city could contract three or four days a week if anybody still wanted to maintain the CEDA resource. 

 

If the position didn’t work out for any reason, Arnoldt expressed confidence that CEDA would still contract with Janesville but also made his wariness known based on past collaboration.

“Even if we don’t renew their contract, we could sign a new contract with them,” Arnoldt said.

Since the council listed it as part of the same resolution, the council approved the delegation of general manager duties to Jakob Lehrke since the city also was impressed with Lerke’s handling of budgets. The council also believed, since Kevin Cumberland is still fairly new to budgets, it would be of a help to him. While Lerke would still assist Cumberland due to the character he’s shown, Arnoldt said he thought Lerke should get compensated for his time.

 

The council voted to terminate the city’s contract with CEDA. In the morning, Rogers said, he would call and inform CEDA of the city’s official decision.

 

In other matters, the council approved putting up barricades for some work to be done along former Highway14 as the county received some federal money to improve the shoulders on the road. The council determined no set time frame.

 

The council approved a request to place a fire pit at the bottom of the sledding hill near the city park.

 

The decision was made to have city hall closed all day both Christmas Eve and Christmas day.