WAUPUN — Mayor of Waupun Rohn Bishop threatened to veto the proposed 2023 City Budget at the Common Council meeting Wednesday evening over the purchase of a new $48,000 work truck for the Department of Public Works that was being purchased through Ewald Automotive. The Mayor argued that the City should favor local businesses when possible such as Homan Auto, a business heavily involved in community investments.
The meeting began with a public hearing presentation on the budget, presented by City Administrator Kathy Schlieve. The overview presentation included details on the tax burden to city residents and where city funding was allocated.
After the presentation concluded, the Mayor made a motion to approve the budget but not approve the proposed DPW truck that would be purchased through Ewald Automotive when they could purchase through a local provider such as Homan Auto. Ewald has always been the lowest bid for government contracts and is the primary state provider for purchasing new vehicles, but Mayor Bishop insisted that the City has an obligation to shop locally when it can.
“Homan Auto cuts a $30,000 check every year to Celebrate Waupun, they sponsor a field at the Little League complex, they sponsor the ice for the hockey team, they sponsor soccer teams,” Mayor Bishop explained. “I don’t know what the magic number is, but whatever the reason is, we need to be buying more from local tax-paying businesses that support local sports and athletics. And I’m just annoyed that the City and Utilities—sometimes for as little of a difference as $300—buy vehicles from Ewald in Oconomowoc when they could buy them from Homans in Waupun.”
The proposed truck that was accounted for in the budget is listed at $48,000 and needs to be ordered from Ewald Automotive by December 16th at the very latest, according to Jeff Daane. Purchasing an equivalent truck from Homan Auto would increase the price by approximately $2,000.
“It’s not that I’m picking on this particular truck, I just want to draw a line in the sand,” Mayor Bishop said. “Like I said, I don’t know where the magic number is, but within reason I think we should be purchasing stuff from in town.”
City Administrator Kathy Schlieve questioned whether the Mayor’s proposal would be possible under the current municipal purchasing policies so late in the process.
“We would need to modify our purchasing policy to do what [Mayor] Rohn is proposing,” Schlieve said. “It would require us to spend some time really looking at policies, so the cleanest way would be to remove the purchase from the budget and we would adjust the levy as proposed.”
Alderman Westphal asked for more details regarding Mayor Bishop’s proposal, and asked whether the truck could be purchased from Homan Auto if the budget was passed without modification. Schlieve said she was unsure whether they had an option whether to pass the budget or remove the truck from the budget entirely.
“If you were to leave it in the budget, I could veto the entire budget,” Mayor Bishop said. “They don’t want me to do it, but I would.”
The Common Council discussed several options on how to proceed, including changing the policy and reallocating the funds to projects they were originally pulled from. They concluded that the purchasing policy could be changed to include a clause that would allow the City to purchase from local businesses if they are within a certain percentage of the lowest bid.
Alderman Dan Siebers, who was attending the meeting virtually through zoom, said, “If we can modify that policy, to get a percentage for capital purchases like that, that would be an advantage to local business.”
Mayor Bishop noted that he had a potential conflict of interest as a former employee of Homan Auto for many years but emphasized the wide array of contributions that Homan Auto makes to the community, asking whether an extra $2,000 on the part of the City is worth the community investments that Homan Auto provides.
The budgetary motion was rearticulated by Schlieve to add a contingency to find out whether the City could purchase the new DPW truck through Homan Auto instead of Ewald Automotive as planned, or whether policy could be modified to include it.
Alderman Matoushek made the motion, seconded by Alderman Langford. The language of the motion from the meeting minutes is as follows: “Resolution 11-09-22-01 Adopting the 2023 Budget and Tax Levy with the contingency of the public works vehicle is not purchased until further discussion, prior to December 16, 2022, is held and purchase approved. If this vehicle is not approved prior to the deadline, reallocation of these budgeted funds may be considered by the Council as recommended by City Staff.”
The modified budget proposal was passed unanimously.
