Hello City of Eau Claire employees, residents, and Council Members –

Here are some updates from around Eau Claire. Note that prior updates can be found here, and you can use these linked forms to send feedback to the City Manager’s Office or City Council.

With the Thanksgiving holiday next week, I won't be sending a newsletter. We are hoping for a peaceful, safe, happy, and healthy Thanksgiving for our whole community.

In the spirit of giving thanks, I want to share appreciation for all of our community members, Council, and staff for the different ways you keep our community strong. And, a special thank you to all who work on holidays, including our City staff. The City's first responders, 911 call takers, and Utilities staff are always on duty. Please join me in thanking them for keeping us safe while much of the community rests.

City Manager Stephanie Hirsch

CITY UPDATES

PFAS Updates: Our Utilities Division provided an update this week on the construction of a PFAS filtration facility. They have recently received delivery of the PFAS "vessels". The vessels, pictured below, are large tanks that hold the “media” that filters the water. The media looks like sand, but it's a specialized material that bonds with the PFAS molecules in the water to remove any traces of PFAS. Water from our wells will flow through these tanks prior to delivery to households and businesses throughout the community.

The media is projected to last about three years before needing to be replaced. The Utilities team will be using lab equipment to test the water on an ongoing basis. Detection of any PFAS will show that the media needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to dispose of used media. Since PFAS is a forever chemical, it needs to be treated as hazardous waste, and the City will work with a special contractor to dispose of it. The City is still on track for the project to be fully operational by the late 2026.

Pictured below, a crew moves one of the new vessels into the new PFAS treatment building.

Mt. Simon Park: Our Parks Division is happy to share that the new playground has been installed in upper Mt Simon Park. Take a look below at how awesome it looks. I hope many can go check it out before it gets too cold. Also in the park is a new bench that honors Jane Honadel for her donation to Mt. Simon Playground. We are so grateful for the donation, and we know that children for many decades to come will enjoy this space. The new playground equipment and memorial bench are pictured below.

Toys for Tots: Our Fire Department has asked that people help with their annual toy drive, which provides holiday gifts for area children in need. Deputy Chief Haller said: "Most of our drop-off boxes are looking a little empty right now, and we’d love to fill them up before it’s too late. People can drop off unwrapped toys at any of the six fire stations in the City of Eau Claire before December 9th." You can learn more by watching this video, which Police and Fire Department staff (pictured below) teamed up to make: Toys for Tots Video.

Guidelines:

• First, in order to be eligible for prizes, patrons must register online. (One registrant per family or individual.) Register Here: ActiveNet Registration - FLERR-101CP

• While on your search, please do not remove or alter the clue so it remains intact for the next family or individual.

• To view the Reindeer Round-Up Clues and submit your photos, please visit: https://www.visiteauclaire.com/things-to-do/winter/reindeer-round-up/

Drawings will be held at the end of the event. Communications for drawing day will be posted to the Eau Claire Parks, Recreation & Forestry Page. Most importantly, have FUN, good luck and now, get out there and enjoy our beautiful Eau Claire Parks!" An example of what the clues look like is shown below.

COUNCIL UPDATES

Next Week’s Meeting Materials: Next week is a Council meeting week, and the full packet of information can be found here: Council Packet. Monday night’s meeting has been cancelled due to a lack of agenda items. Tuesday’s meeting has two work sessions, with one on the City’s need for industrial land and a second on continued planning for how the City can achieve fiscal stability.

Budget Analysis: As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, I am sharing some analysis we did to look at the last 45 years of City finances and service levels. We dug into Leader Telegram archives and examined collections on the fifth floor of UWEC’s Macintyre Library. We invite others to take a look at these publicly-available datasets to share your analysis, questions, and suggestions. Budgets going back to 1995 can be found here, and earlier ones plus other City reports can be found in the archives on the fifth floor of the Library. Pictured below is the front cover of the 1979 City budget book.

Summary: Here is our understanding of City finances over the last 45 years. Since 1980, per capita inflation-adjusted spending has fallen due to Wisconsin tax laws. In the earlier decades, austerity probably produced some efficiencies, allowing us to “do more with less.” However, after 40+ years of austerity, cuts plus new service demands have stretched staff far too thin to maintain desired service levels or undertake new initiatives.

For 2026 and beyond, we need to either solve the revenue problem or do “less with less,” selecting service reductions that least impact our community’s wellbeing. Notably, though our spending has fallen, residents are paying more taxes on a per-capita basis. This is because the State has reduced how much it contributes to local governments, while also blocking other avenues of revenue generation. 

Note that these data points should be considered estimates that can give us a general sense of the direction of change. Because the data come from different decades, we can't say for sure what are apples-to-apples comparisons. Even without knowing the exact comparability, though, we can look at the directional trends, summarized below. The data sources are listed at the bottom of this section, and we invite you to explore them and share your findings.

Budget Changes: We studied budgets from 1980 to present and noted these changes:

Growing Service Requirements: Service requirements have increased much faster than staffing levels. While the number of employees increased by seven percent during those 45 years (or 32 employees), all other metrics increased by at least twice that percent, as shown in the table below, such as: population (+44%), park acres (+93%), or EMS incidents (+607%). This trend results in each employee covering much more workload, as indicated in the second graph. Note that in 2020, the number of employees was only 497.5, so the difference then was even more stark.

Falling Per Capita Spending: Adjusted for inflation, the City spends less per capita than it did in 1980 or 2000. If we remove capital spending, this difference is even more dramatic. As indicated in the table below, inflation-adjusted spending per capita was $1,434 in 1980 and $1,222 in 2025.

Growing Tax Burden: Even though the City is struggling with lower revenue, residents are paying more taxes due to declining state aid. As the table and chart below indicates, inflation-adjusted shared revenue per capita was $380 in 1980 (making up 27% of our budget), while it was just $101 in 2025 (making up only 8% of the budget). The resulting gap in funding has been made up with increased property taxes and other fees, such as our Local Vehicle Registration Fee (LVRF). Due to this change, residents are actually paying more in 2025 while receiving fewer services.

Causes of Budget Challenges: As a reminder, Wisconsin tax law prevents municipalities from using revenue sources typically used to fund local government, and the constraints have grown more extreme over the decades. As a result, communities have increasingly relied on property taxes or the few other allowable fees, such as the LVRF.  

Other states allow communities to use different tools, and here are some examples:

• Inflation adjustments to levy limits: Our taxes may increase only by the amount of new growth with no adjustment for inflation, which is challenging especially during a period of high inflation. Since 2020, if Eau Claire had adjusted its tax levy for inflation, we would have collected an additional $9 million in revenue.

• Local options sales tax: If the City of Eau Claire could add a sales tax, we estimate a .5% sales tax would generate about $11 million in additional revenue/year for the City. This funding would provide relief for residents, since a significant share of shoppers in the City would be non-residents.

• Reform of Shared Revenue formulas: Among larger cities, Eau Claire receives less aid from the state. If, for example, Eau Claire had the same per capita shared revenue as Superior has, it would result in an additional about $15 million aid from the state. And, as mentioned above, shared revenue for all communities has steadily been dropping over the decades. If State support had remained 27 percent of our budget, as it was in 1980, we would have an additional $16.5 million in revenue. (You can read more here about the formula: Wisconsin Policy Forum | Municipal revenues rise sharply but not uniformly)

• Additional tools: Other states allow local communities to fund services with additional tools, including: licensing/taxing marijuana sales, collecting taxes from a region to fund regional services, carrying out automated traffic enforcement, or even running municipal liquor stores.

Impact of Recent Years: Recent years have seen high inflation and significant population growth. We’ve seen a CPI increase of about 18 to 20 percent over four years and population growth of nearly 4,000 people. With these trends, and with decades of holding budget increases to very low levels, we are unable to ask employees to do even more with less. We are at a long-anticipated “tipping point”, at which it’s necessary to either increase our budget or reduce our service levels.

Policy Decision: Our key policy decision is: Should we reduce services, increase revenue, or carry out some combination of the two? We have heard from Council Members and constituents that Eau Claire has a high quality of life and is a desirable place to live, and we want to maintain those excellent services. Here are just a few of our area’s selling points:

• Our Fire Department is one of the best in the Country, according to the insurance industry, and our Police Department is a national leader as well.

• Residents and visitors alike enjoy our 53 parks, 17 bridges, and our 57 miles of trails.

• While most people complain about streets everywhere in the country, Eau Claire residents are unusually positive about the condition of our roads, which also allow for comfortable travel for commuters and visitors.

• Our regional facilities like Pablo, Sonnentag, and Carson Park provide our community and greater downtown area with the amenities of a big city, that are just moments away from nature.

These factors allow us to continue to attract visitors and new residents. Continued growth, in turn, generates more Net New Construction, which allows us to increase our budget slightly each year. Significant cuts to City services could lead to a downward spiral of disinvestment and population loss.

How Residents and Stakeholders Can Help: The question of how much to cut vs how much to raise revenue is not a settled one. Instead, we are just getting started on these challenging discussions. There are two ways that each of you can help:

• Share ideas: We will be seeking input from our residents and stakeholders. While we heard negative feedback about raising revenue, we anticipate that we will also hear a great deal of concern about cuts that will be necessary. It’s a challenging balancing act, and we invite you to join us in problem solving. You can read more about efforts underway in this document, and we will invite you to participate in discussions in coming months as we try to weigh which cuts least impact the safety and quality of life or our residents. 

Please feel free to reach out to me directly with your questions and comments by emailing me at stephanie.hirsch@eauclairewi.gov or calling me at 715-839-6045. I will work on replying to all who reach out, and I will share your comments in future newsletters.

• Lobby the state: We need structural reform at the State level. We will share opportunities to join in lobbying efforts in coming weeks and months.

Thank you for reviewing this complex information, and please stay tuned for more invitations to get involved.

Data notes: City employee counts exclude the Library and Health Departments. Population, housing units, and miles of land are from Census data. Housing units for 2025 are estimated based on Census data and data from our Community Development Department. Acres of parks and public safety incidents are from budget books, though some of the data is approximate and/or from nearby years as follows: Fire/EMS calls uses 1979 data vs 1980 and 2024 data vs. 2025. Police service demands use 1977 data vs 1980 and 2024 vs. 2025. The Police service demands are perhaps the hardest to compare by year, due to changes in categorization at the local and federal levels. Spending per capita is our best effort to find comparable figures, given accounting changes.

WAYS TO SERVE: 

Employment Openings: Take a look at our open positions here: Job Openings | Sorted by Posting Date descending | JOB OPENINGS (governmentjobs.com)

NEW: Community Service Worker I - Custodial Maintenance (Community Services): Positive attitude, ability to work independently and as part of a team, eye for detail, and comfortable working around confidential information – that’s what we are looking for! We are currently hiring for a Community Service Worker I (Custodial Maintenance) in our Community Services Department. Deadline to apply: Sunday, November 30th at 11:59PM.

NEW: Youth Services Desk Clerk (Library): Do you love helping kids and families and connecting them with the resources they need? The L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library is currently seeking an enthusiastic and detail-oriented Desk Clerk who has a passion for public service to work at the Library’s youth services desk. This is a part-time, non-exempt position, averaging 19 hours per week. The 2026 starting wage is $16.40 per hour. Deadline to apply: Friday, December 5th at 8AM.

Boards, Commissions, and Committees: We have several openings on the volunteer Boards, Commissions, and Committees that are listed below. Learn more about these roles and apply here:  Boards, Commissions & Committees | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Zoning Board of Appeals: The work of the board is to hear and decide appeals where it is alleged there is error in any order, requirement, decision or determination made by the Zoning Administrator. An understanding of zoning and land use is helpful, but not required.

Landmark Commission: The Landmark Commission designates landmarks and regulates construction, reconstruction and exterior alteration to landmarks, landmark sites, and structures within historic districts. The City of Eau Claire's Landmarks commission is currently in need of two resident volunteers (one should have a realty background and one requires no special skills.)

Volunteer Roles

Clearwater Parade: We are calling all volunteers to help make the Clearwater Winter Parade shine! Join in the fun and help bring this festive event to life. For more information, visit Clearwater Winter Events | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin The parade will be held on Friday, December 5th on Grand Avenue, at 6:30PM, and it gets kicked off with fireworks over the Grand Avenue bridge.

CLOSURES/DETOURS, OPENINGS, DEADLINES, ALERTS, & REMINDERS:

Thanksgiving Closures: City Hall will be closed on Thursday and Friday next week, while our Library and Transit systems will be closed Thursday, but open on Friday. 

Dock Removals: The docks at Riverview Park and Mt. Simon (pictured below) have been removed for the season.

A Few More Reminders:

• Eddy Street Bridge Open (with Weight Restrictions): Eddy Street Bridge is now open with a 15-ton weight limit. (Most personal-use vehicles, including passenger cars, SUVs, and light trucks, weigh less than 15 tons.)

• Green Waste Facility: The Green Waste Facility located at 5710 Jeffers Road will close for the season at 3PM on Saturday, November 22nd.

• Odd/Even Parking Restrictions: The City is enforcing winter odd/even parking restrictions. Alternate Side Parking rules are in effect even if there is no snow. If you're new to Eau Claire or just need a refresher, visit EauClaireWI.gov/AlternateSideParking for what you need to know. Alternate Side Parking rules do not replace more restrictive parking regulations, including any street posted with No Parking sign.

• Snow Management: We saw a few flakes this week! Here are reminders on the City's winter operations: Snow & Ice Control | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, along with a photo of the Grand Ave bridge with newly placed garlands. Winter decorations are sponsored by our downtown Business Improvement Districts in coordination with DECI.

Street Updates: Take a look at an updated Street Closure Report.

Completed Street Projects: Our Engineering Department notes that projects are complete, with the exception of sod installation for these four below. This step will occur in 2026.

• South Dewey Street

• Eddy Lane

• Emery Street

• Mars Avenue

Upcoming Construction and Closure

• Festival Foods Turkey Trot, Thursday, November 27th, 7 to 10AM (sections of: Graham, Eau Claire Street, Riverfront Terrace, Madison, Oxford, First, Lake)

WAYS TO GET IN TOUCH: We encourage you to use these different ways to follow City news and reach out to us.

• Follow our social media accounts. Those accounts include: Police, K9 Murphy, Fire, Transit, Parks/Recreation, Fairfax Pool, Hobbs Ice Arena, Economic Development, and the General City account. Some of the accounts allow constituents to send direct messages, which staff will respond to.

• Use web forms. Submit a question or comment via our web forms: Service Request | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin We will reply, and I will continue to share the FAQs we hear in the weekly newsletter.

• Contact City Council. Council Members welcome contacts, and you can reach them here: City Council

• Sign up for City notices. The City sends out notices on many different topics, and you can elect to receive any of them here: Sign Up for eNotifications | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

• Attend Council Meetings. Individuals can stream or attend City Council meetings, and each Monday evening session has a period of public comment. Meetings can be found here: Meetings | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

• Attend (or apply to be part of) a Board, Commission, or Committee: Individuals can also attend the meetings of our different volunteer committees. Those also have a public comment period. Residents can learn more here: Boards, Commissions & Committees | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

• Invite us to a meeting. We are also always happy to send staff and Council Members to other meetings residents or stakeholders would like to hold. We can attend book clubs, lectures, classes, church assemblies, etc. We will come to you -- just let us know where and when.

• Join (or form) a Neighborhood Association. Neighborhood Associations are the building blocks of community ties and community change. Visit this site to learn more about how to join or create a Neighborhood Association: Neighborhood Associations | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

• Try the ECPD app. Download the app to find the Report a Crime form, track career opportunities, and get instant alerts: https://www.joinecpd.org/ecpdapp

• Volunteer. Get involved in the nuts and bolts of City Operations by volunteering to staff the winter parade, to help maintain a park, or more. Learn more here: Volunteer Opportunities | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

• Contact the ADA Coordinator. Have a question about accessibility? Contact the ADA Coordinator here: ADACoordinator@EauClaireWI.gov, or learn more here: ADA - Americans with Disabilities Act Information

• Contact Us. Find more ways to reach us via this page: Contact Us - Service Directory | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

COUNCIL CALENDAR (Tentative – Please see: City Calendar | City of Eau Claire, Wisconsin (eauclairewi.gov) for most complete and up-to-date list of public meetings)

• CANCELLED: Monday, November 24th, Public Hearing, Council Chambers, 6PM

• Tuesday, November 25th, Council Meeting, Council Chambers, 4PM

• Monday, December 8th, Public Hearing, Council Chambers, 6PM

• Tuesday, December 9th, Council Meeting, Council Chambers 4PM

• CANCELLED: December 22nd and 23rd Meetings