The Whitewater Common Council heard City Manager John Weidl’s report during their Thursday, Feb. 20 meeting. During the meeting there was a closed session to discuss changes to the city manager’s employment agreement.
According to Weidl’s report the Innovation Center at 1221 Innovation Drive is now connected to the city’s network. The fiber connection will be getting tested for full-time use. His report also honored officer Michele Martin for her 28 years of service at the Whitewater Police Department. She retired after completing her final shift earlier in February.
While construction continues at the Irvin L. Young Memorial Library there are still many services available. The League of Women Voters will be tabling at the library as they raise awareness for voter registration ahead of the April 1 election day. Weidl also said that the city’s media services are working to create educational videos about the upcoming police and fire referendum.
The major polling place for that April 1 election, the Armory, had two separate occasions recently when people got stuck in the elevator.
“We’re going to work on that,” Weidl said.
He also thanked public workers, particularly parks and rec, for their hard work during the recent snow storms.
In a closed session and then back in an open session of the meeting the common council agreed to make adjustments to the city manager’s employment agreement. The council will draft the amended employment agreement to reflect that Weidl will receive $5,000 more to his base salary once his certified economic certification is completed. It will also reflect that a degree based adjustment will be made once Weidl finishes his doctorate, that pay change is also an additional $5,000.
“Once those two things are completed and he provides that information to HR that will be conveyed and if we need to take any action we can at that time,” Whitewater Common Council President Patrick Singer said.
The language of the agreement is also set to be adjusted to allow Weidl to not spend more than 10 percent of total work hours per week on secondary engagements without prior approval from the council.
“This is very similar to what previous City Manager Clapper had,” Singer said. “[It] will allow John to have the flexibility to speak at conferences, and it helps as an ambassador to our community to have him represent us in those kinds of matters.”
This set of changes is the second time in the last year the agreement has been amended. Weidl will agree to not request any more amendments until January of 2028.
