Oshkosh reduces number of public readings for ordinances 

OSHKOSH, Wis. (WISS) – New ordinances in the City of Oshkosh will be handled a little differently now.

The Oshkosh Common Council voted Tuesday night to eliminate the requirement that new ordinances be read at two separate council meetings before being voted on.

City Manager Rebecca Grill informed the council that eliminating the second reading would make the approval or denial of ordinances more efficient. That is especially true after the Council approved a meeting schedule for 2026 that resulted in some months having only a single meeting of the Common Council.

 ”With that, if we have fewer in certain months, things are gonna take longer to get through,” Grill told the Common Council.

Grill stated that if the city continued its current method of reading an ordinance over two council meetings, with the revised schedule, it would take an additional 10 days on average for ordinances to be voted on — an increase in time that could be detrimental to development.

“We’re trying to be more friendly with development and things like that,” Grill said. “So with the one reading, the average (time to approval) is reduced by 11 days.”

Public Input on Ordinances

State law does not require municipalities to have two readings of ordinances prior to adoption. There is also no state requirement for public hearings for ordinances.

However, Grill said the Council can always refer things to a committee or postpone an item to a future meeting if more discussion or public input is needed.

“Regarding the concerns of actually getting feedback and input,” Grill said. “I think we just really need to be intentional about if there’s certain things that people are concerned about or that we know that are going to be bigger things that we need to maybe have a discussion.”

Common Council members agreed with Grill that a single reading of new or amended ordinances would save time.

“As we try to streamline our meeting schedule, we should be trying to streamline our ordinance schedule as well. I think adopting things in the first reading is beneficial for developers, business owners, and citizens,” said Council Member Jacob Floam. “We have tools in our toolbox if we want to have something laid over, if we would rather have a discussion on it, if it’s a weightier item.”

Deputy Mayor Joe Stephenson agreed and said the Common Council does a good enough job of informing the public and seeking input.

“ I don’t think in this instance we’re taking away any public input,” Stephenson said. “We can obviously lay things over. I think we’ve been doing a very good job at trying to elicit more public input.”

Meanwhile, Council Member Karl Buelow felt that reducing the number of readings for ordinances would benefit developers.

“ My favorite part of it is that we see developers have to come here two times for an entire month to know if there’s going to be a discussion or debate on their topic, and to be available to answer any questions that we have. This way they’re gonna know ahead of time that this is the action item day,” he said. 

Reaction to the Change

The Common Council waived the rules requiring two readings of an ordinance before voting on it, approving it on its first reading.

That waiving of the rules didn’t sit right with Karen Schneider, publisher of the Oshkosh Herald. 

“You waive the rule to waive the rules without letting that at least go through its current proper process,” Schneider said. “Give the public time to acknowledge that change or to speak on it. Now, if they have that time to speak on it, and they don’t, that’s on them. That’s on us, Joe and Jane Public. But the council took it upon themselves to waive the rule on waiving the rules.”

Bill Leuders, President of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, a group that seeks to protect public access to records, stated that municipalities are not required to offer a chance for public input on ordinances such as this. 

“(Municipalities) are not under any obligation to read the ordinance at all. So anything they do with regard to that is within their rights, within their discretion, whether they want to read it once or twice, it’s their rule, and they can suspend it,” Leuders said.

Leuders explained that municipalities don’t have to offer a chance for public input at all.

“There are some zoning decisions that public bodies are required to invite public comment on,” Leuders said. “But most of what city councils and county boards and school boards do, there is no requirement that they provide opportunities for public input, although most of them do.”

The City of Oshkosh publishes the agenda for its meetings on the Friday afternoon or evening before the meeting (usually on a Tuesday).

Wisconsin’s open meetings laws require that agendas for governmental meetings be made public at least 24 hours in advance. In emergencies, at least two hours’ notice of a meeting is required.