A podcast that helps La Crosse residents prepare for Common Council meetings.
Before Council helps residents understand what’s coming before the La Crosse Common Council before votes are cast and decisions are made.
Each episode follows the Judiciary & Administration Committee and Finance & Personnel Committee, breaking down agenda items, development proposals, budget decisions, and other local government issues in plain language.
Hosted by Mac Kiel and Tony Ayala.
Before Council is a project of Open Session, produced by Good Fight.
Pathways Home with Jim Drees & Brian Sampson | Before Council Presents: One Question | 07 OCT 2026
Jim Drees and Brian Sampson join Tony Ayala for a conversation about Pathways Home, the coordinated City of La Crosse and La Crosse County plan for addressing homelessness in the community.
Drees serves as La Crosse County’s Homelessness Response System Manager, leading implementation of Pathways Home. Sampson serves as the City of La Crosse’s Homeless Services Coordinator.
This interview is part of Before Council Presents: One Question, a series created to give La Crosse residents more time to hear directly from the people working on consequential issues facing the community.
The central question:
Is La Crosse actually making progress on homelessness, and if so, what is working?
The conversation examines the progress being reported through Pathways Home, how the City and County measure results, which coordinated approaches are showing promise, and what obstacles remain.
Pathways Home has established the goal of reaching Functional Zero homelessness by 2029—a point at which homelessness is prevented whenever possible and, when it occurs, is rare, brief, and non-recurring.
This conversation is not a debate, endorsement, or campaign event. It is an opportunity to better understand the work already underway, the evidence behind reported progress, and what it will take to sustain that progress.
Learn more about Pathways Home. (https://www.cityoflacrosse.org/Your-Government/Departments/Planning-Development/Housing-Neighborhoods/Homelessness)
Additional civic resources: justgoodfight.com/city-resources (https://www.justgoodfight.com/city-resources)
Before Council: justgoodfight.com/before-council (https://www.justgoodfight.com/before-council)
Know Before the Vote.
14 Oct 2026
October 2026 | Meeting Companion: Board of Estimates
This Meeting Companion contains the October 12, 2026 Board of Estimates meeting from the City of La Crosse and an important step in developing the City’s 2027 Operating Budget.
The Board continued its review of the proposed operating budget, considered alternative approaches to balancing City finances, and discussed whether to request a budget scenario in which the City would opt out of the Expenditure Restraint Program. That request did not pass.
The meeting also included a public hearing on the proposed budget. Following the hearing, the Board approved amendments addressing proposed revenue and expenses.
The Board voted to continue its budget deliberations at a second meeting scheduled for October 13.
To make the meeting easier to listen to, periods of silence, delays, recesses, and other dead air have been removed. The discussion itself has not been edited, shortened, rearranged, or summarized.
This is not the final 2027 Operating Budget. It is part of the public budget process leading to a recommended budget and subsequent consideration by the Common Council.
If you’re interested in understanding the financial decisions facing the City of La Crosse, this is a meeting worth putting in your ears.
For official budget documents, agendas, minutes, supporting materials, and the original City recording, visit cityoflacrosse.org (https://www.cityoflacrosse.org/).
Know Before the Vote.
14 Oct 2026
Common Council Meeting Companion | October 6, 2026
The Before Council Meeting Companion makes it easier to follow La Crosse city government on your own time.
This episode features the La Crosse Common Council meeting held Tuesday, October 6, 2026, at La Crosse City Hall. The Council met from 6:00 p.m. until 7:17 p.m.
This Meeting Companion has been condensed by removing extended silence, recesses, delays, and other dead air to make the meeting easier to consume on streaming platforms.
No substantive discussion has been removed, rearranged, or editorially altered. The meeting remains in its original order.
The Common Council is where legislation that has moved through the City’s committee process comes before the full Council for consideration and action.
During this meeting, the Council adopted a charter ordinance concerning the appointment of City department heads; approved funding and equipment measures for the Water Utility; authorized an agreement with the Department of the Army for the La Crosse Flood Risk Management Project; approved contracts for the wastewater treatment plant office remodel and Northside Floodplain Development project; and adopted measures involving sewer utility rates, sanitary sewer easements, capital financing, licenses, and the rezoning of 1552 Kane Street for use as a community center.
The Council did not adopt a proposed resolution concerning Council member expense accounts and reimbursement procedures.
For agendas, minutes, meeting videos, legislation, voting records, and supporting documents, visit the City of La Crosse’s official website (https://www.cityoflacrosse.org/).
City resources: justgoodfight.com/city-resources (https://www.justgoodfight.com/city-resources)
Before Council is hosted by Tony Ayala and former La Crosse Common Council member Mac Kiel and produced by Just Good Fight Media in collaboration with Open Session.
Know Before the Vote.
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