District 6 Update, December 21, 2020
Good morning District 6,
I assume that many of you are making final preparations for
a holiday that might be different from any that you have celebrated before. I
don’t know about others, but I am fairly certain that I offset the savings on
plane tickets with added mailing expenses this year. I also failed to figure
out how to adjust holiday baking to account for only two of us in the house
this year. My husband claims that just the smell of sugar in the air is giving
him pre-diabetic symptoms.
By the way, I missed wishing a Happy Hanukkah to those who
celebrate in my last update – I hope it was joyous.
We had the last Common Council meeting of 2020 last
Wednesday. In the past, this has been followed by a holiday gathering; this
year it was just smiles and waves on the Zoom screen.
We voted to confirm reappointment to the Bicycle and
Pedestrian Advisory Committee. Note that these were reappointments of current
members; this committee, along with several other committees, commissions and
boards, has openings. More information and links to the applications later in
this message.
The mayor also read the proclamation observing Hmong New
Year season. It was sad that the in-person celebrations had to be canceled this
year – I remember how much fun it was last year.
We did get some better news in the COVID-19 update. As of
last week, the trajectory of cases was still flattening, leaving us in the VERY
HIGH category, down from the CRITICALLY HIGH where we had been for some weeks.
This seems to indicate that we did not have the expected spike from the
Thanksgiving holiday. I hope that everyone stayed vigilant through the December
holidays so far and will remain careful through the New Year. The first
vaccines have reached the Fox Valley, and some of our health care workers have
already been vaccinated, but we do not have anything like an all clear yet.
Most of us are probably months from getting the first vaccination, and the
vaccine requires a second dose a month after the first to be effective. We are
up to 50 deaths in the city, and we are seeing more deaths among non-elderly
people.
Other notable items from the agenda included updates to the
master trails plan, adding new trails in the northern part of the city where a
lot of new subdivision development is happening, and renewing the lease in
Vulcan Park where Fratello’s has their patio. I saw in the news this week that
they have installed some of the domes to allow outdoor dining in cold weather –
has anyone tried them there or at any of the other places that have installed
them?
There was a change in the allocation of some of the CARES
Act funds from Habitat for Humanity to the city motel voucher program for the
homeless. The Habitat program was deemed ineligible for the funding by the
federal government.
An item from the Human Resources and Information Technology
Committee was the source of quite a bit of discussion. In the committee, we
voted to amend an item updating the Memorandum of Understanding between the
city and the Appleton Housing Authority. AHA employees are not city employees,
but have participated in the city employee dental, life, long term disability
insurance and voluntary insurance plans, along with the health plan, for many
years. The agreement was formalized with a Memorandum of Understanding in 2014.
AHA pays the employer share of the premiums, and employees pay for their
coverage. At this time there are 14 AHA employees on the city health plan. The
resolution originally called for extending the MOU for the dental, life, long
term disability and voluntary insurance to December 31, 2022 and the health
plan to December 31, 2021. The concern is that the city is self-insured up to a
stop-loss threshold of $250,000 for an individual claim so that any one
individual with a catastrophic illness or injury would put the city at risk. AHA
employees would have access to medical insurance through a state program, but
the premiums to both the employees and AHA would be higher – several board
members spoke to the committee stating that the cost to AHA could be from
$30,000 to $60,000 more per year and the cost to employees could be as much as
$3000 per year more. The committee recommended approval of an amended
resolution moving the date for the health plan to December 31, 2022 along with
the other insurance plans. Our feeling was that putting this burden on AHA in
what we hope will be the first post-pandemic year was simply not the right
thing to do – taking funds away that would be used to help people in our
community. The 14 insured people are not at any higher risk than the 630 city
employees or families covered under the health plan. In the full Council
meeting, Alderperson Lobner proposed an amendment keeping the December 31, 2022
date, but removing the phrase “at which time AHA's participation in the City's
medical plan will conclude”. This would allow reconsideration of the MOU at
that time. This resolution passed 10-5. I voted for the resolution as amended
both times – I understand that the city is taking on the risk, but the AHA
employees are 2% of the total group and I think that their funds are better
spent serving the community.
I am pleased to report that the plan repaving of Owaissa
Street, which would result in the removal of a number of trees, was held by the
Municipal Service Committee. Alderperson Meltzer reached out to his
constituents and the overwhelming response was that the widening and additional
sidewalk were not needed at the expense of the trees. The item is being
considered again at today’s committee meeting.
We were also presented with the Request for Proposals for
the design of the new/rebuilt library project as an information item. This
would be going out to architects to propose the design for the building. The
RFP includes language discussing the use of the yellow parking ramp and a
walkway for access from the ramp, along with discussion of energy efficiency
and environmental concerns. The RFP is attached to the Common Council meeting
minutes.
In a little housekeeping note, a constituent wrote me last
week about campaign signs. According to the city code, candidate signs need to
be taken down 10 days after the election. This does not include issue or
messaging signs.
As a reminder that is both personal (I do a lot of walking
around our neighborhoods) and regulatory, please make sure that your sump pump
does not drain onto the sidewalk. It’s very dangerous, particularly when we
have just a bit of snow and can’t see the ice below.
As promised – here is a list of the committee, commission
and board vacancies. The deadline for applications for all of them is December
31. If you are interested and have questions, please let me know and I will put
you in contact with someone who can help.
Appleton Public Arts Committee:
https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/appletonwi/jobs/2908865/appleton-public-arts-committee-apac
Appleton Redevelopment Authority:
https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/appletonwi/jobs/2908731/appleton-redevelopment-authority
Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee:
Board of Health:
https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/appletonwi/jobs/2908774/board-of-health
Board of Review:
https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/appletonwi/jobs/2908789/board-of-review
Board of Zoning Appeals:
https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/appletonwi/jobs/2908817/board-of-zoning-appeals
Business Improvement District Board:
City Plan Commission:
https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/appletonwi/jobs/2910204/city-plan-commission
Historic Preservation Commission:
https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/appletonwi/jobs/2908846/historic-preservation-commission
Library Board:
https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/appletonwi/jobs/2908840/library-board
Taskforce on Resiliency, Climate Mitigation and Adaptation:
Unfortunately, we lost two valuable members of this group
due to their job and other commitments – although we have submitted our initial
report, there is much work left to do.
As always, you can watch committee meetings and full Common
Council meetings live on the Legistar site:
https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx
If you want to participate in a meeting remotely, here are
the instructions:
https://www.appleton.org/home/showdocument?id=23370
In-person public participation is still being allowed, with
restrictions on the number of people in Council chambers.
Tomorrow night Santa will be visiting the rest of District
6. Wards 16 and 17 are on the North route – some changes have been made since
the original post – I know that the route ends in Memorial Park.
You can track Santa here:
http://www.santa2020appleton.org/
Happy Holidays to all and warm wishes for a Happy New Year!
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