At the Village of Waukesha meeting, resident Sandy Helm urged the board to weigh budgetary pressures carefully and questioned some of the options under consideration, including a proposed yard waste fee and rising personnel costs.

Helm, who identified herself by name and street, said she started following the village’s budget discussion when the sheriff’s proposed 5% increase was mentioned. “If you’re running a business, if you’re a small business and your costs are increasing 5% or 3%, it doesn’t matter what the percent is,” Helm said. “If they’re going up more than your revenue is going up…that money's gotta come from somewhere.”

On a proposed yard-waste fee, Helm said she was unfamiliar with the service and questioned the projected sign-up numbers. “The idea that that came up of of just charging $30, you wanna use it or not, it's $30. Absolutely. And even at that, I don't know that you're gonna get 1,500 people signing up,” she said. She asked whether the village tracks how often residents are turned away at the drop-off site and whether data exist to justify charging for access.

Helm also urged the village to review legal expenses and suggested additional shopping for insurance brokers, praising staff efforts to solicit bids. She acknowledged general sympathy for staff salaries while noting constrained municipal revenues and borrowing as a tool to bridge gaps: “You you don't have the money to do any of the things that you wanna do…So you gotta do everything that you can. One of the tools you're doing is borrowing this money because you can't put it on the tax levy the same way.”

Her comments were offered during the public comment portion; the transcript does not record any formal board response to those remarks during the meeting.