Good afternoon
District 6,
Happy
belated Mother’s Day to all the moms and all who mom. It was gratifying to look
on social media and see photos of families who were getting together for the
first time in over a year. I started tackling some gardening projects over the
nice weekend – it feels good to dig in the dirt again!
Common
Council met mostly in person last Wednesday. After a committee meeting the week
before, a couple of us just stood in the parking garage chatting for quite some
time – it is just so nice to actually stand and talk with people rather than
little squares on a screen.
The mayor
issued a number of proclamations to start the meeting:
Nurses Month
Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Municipal Clerks Week – this gave us a chance to recognize our own City Clerk,
Kami Lynch, and her team for the wonderful job they do.
Police Week
Teacher Appreciation Week
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Day of
Awareness – I was able to attend an
event arranged by a Lawrence University student organization where Mayor
Woodford read this proclamation people whose families have been impacted by the
murders or disappearance of indigenous women and girls.
The COVID-19
update contained some good news – our case trend has moved the city almost out
of the HIGH category with new cases at their lowest level since early last
summer. We did unfortunately have two more deaths in the last couple of weeks.
The Fox Cities Vaccine Clinic will be closing at the end of May, with the plan
being to shift vaccinations more to doctors’ offices and clinics. This week,
the clinic and local breweries are teaming up for “A Shot and a Beer.” If you
get a shot this Tuesday or Wednesday (Johnson and Johnson – so one and done),
you get a coupon good for a free beer at one of our local breweries. Soft drinks
provided for those under 21 or non-imbibers. As of just a couple of minutes
ago, appointments are available for both days, but they take walk-ins as well.
As was the
case for some committee meetings and for the last Common Council meeting, there
was an overflow crowd of citizens who wanted to watch the meeting for the
action items related to Anti-Asian racism and xenophobia and the resolution in
favor of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against
Women. Many of the 25 people who signed up spoke in favor of both resolutions.
Those items
were the only two that were separated out for individual discussion and votes.
Resolution #6-R-21 passed unanimously with no discussion after having been referred
back to the Safety and Licensing Committee at the Council Meeting on April 21.
At the committee meeting on April 28, many members of the Asian American
community spoke for and against passing the resolution with its original language
and there were some more attempts to amend the resolution to remove language
that some found offensive, but it eventually passed unaltered by the committee
and by the full council.
Resolution
#4-R-21 asked that Appleton affirm the principles of fundamental human rights
and equality for women in our community and the elimination of political,
social economic and cultural discrimination against women and express our
support that the United States ratify this convention as we are one of only 6
countries in the world who have not. The resolution passed after quite a bit of
discussion and a failed attempt to amend it to remove the clause supporting ratification
by the United States Senate.
I wrote about
this resolution in the last update. The initiative for the resolution came from
a Lawrence student who heard about it during a summer workshop and decided that
she wanted her home for the next three of four years to be a CEDAW city. She contacted
local women’s organizations, including the League of Women Voters and the Mid-Day
Women’s Alliance who reached out to local elected women, including me. I
researched CEDAW, which I had actually heard about when it was first adopted
about the same time as the battle to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment during the
70s and 80s, and wrote the resolution, using language similar to that in
resolutions passed by other “Cities for CEDAW”, including Madison and Milwaukee
here in Wisconsin. I modified the language in the resolution to be more
inclusive than what is in the original convention written in the 1970s, not
anticipating that this would cause such a firestorm in the Common Council and
the community at large. A council member made some anti-trans statements which were
painful to people in the LGBTQ community who have felt threatened by
legislation coming from a number of state legislatures that is having the
effect of increasing acts of violence against a community that is already at
risk.
After
reading dozens of articles written by experts on both sides of the argument for
ratification of the convention, I came to the conclusion that ratifying CEDAW
won’t change U.S. law and that the U.S. could ratify with “reservations,
declarations, and understandings” where CEDAW is not in alignment with U.S.
policy – in some instances U.S. policy is already more favorable than the
convention.
From an
article cited by a colleague in an argument against passing this
resolution:
Ratifying CEDAW would constitute a political
act of commitment to women’s
rights. It would not require the US to adopt
certain policies; the CEDAW Committee
makes recommendations about how to comply
with the Convention, but the
recommendations are not binding. Ratification
would obligate the US to work
toward compliance with the Articles of the
Convention, and to present periodic
reports for comment by a 23‐member panel of
international women’s rights experts.
(Lisa Baldez,
Department of Government, Dartmouth College -
Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the
American Political Science
Association, Seattle, Washington, September
1‐4, 2011)
I am concerned
by the divisions within the Common Council and our community in general that
were brought to light by the reactions to these resolutions. I hope that the
eventual unanimous passage of #6-R-21 indicates that we can move forward as a
united community. I disagree with my colleagues on some issues, but I never
doubt that we are all motivated by our desire to work for our community and its
citizens.
This week’s
committee meeting highlights:
CEA (Central
Equipment Agency) Committee - Monday, May 10, 4:00 p.m.
Retiring a 2008
light rescue truck (originally scheduled for retirement in 2018) and replacing
it with two ¾ ton pickups and replacing a mid-sized SUV with a ½ ton, 4-door
pickup. This would be a savings of $63,000 over replacing the light rescue
truck.
Municipal
Services Committee – Monday, May 10, 4:30 p.m.
E. Kimball
and Oak St. vacation – these are areas on the bluff site being requested for
vacation; i.e. turning the land over to adjacent property owners. In this case,
U.S. Venture and the YMCA are requesting the street vacation as these portions
of the streets are located in the area they plan to develop.
Information
items – some personnel adjustments that will be action items in the HR and IT
Committee meeting.
Finance
Committee – Monday, May 10, 5:30 p.m.
Awarding a
contract for paving in Pierce Park ($39,600 plus 10% contingency)
Reallocating
$29,700 savings from the Coop Road resurfacing project for paving of the widened
shoulder of Apple Creek Road to allow for a bike lane. The Apple Creek Road paving
is an Outagamie County project and the cities were not informed in time to add
this to the budget, but this is a good opportunity to get this additional
benefit.
Land
dedication for Lightning Drive and a stormwater pond from Apple Tree Appleton
Four, LLC. The landowner will cede the land and the city will pay to build the
stormwater pond.
Awarding the
contract for solar panels on the Municipal Services Building to Current
Electric ($386,200 plus contingency of $50,000). This project is from the 2021
capital improvement budget and is estimated to save $1,035,865 over 30-years with
a payback of 12.4 years or less. It is anticipated that the solar array will
replace 51% of the electric service provided by the utility at this site. This
is a great addition to the city’s sustainability program – an opportunity to
greatly reduce our carbon footprint.
Parks and
Recreation Committee – Monday, May 10, 6:30 p.m.
Resolution
authorizing Director Gazza to apply for grants for developing the David and
Rita Nelson River Crossing Bridge and Trail. The city received a grant that
will pay for about half the estimated cost of developing this bridge and trail
and has budgeted for the remaining amount, but we will be seeking grants that
might be available from the DNR.
Utilities
Committee – Tuesday, May 11, 5:00 p.m.
Awarding the
contract for sanitary storm sewer cleaning and televising ($272,500). This is a
routine maintenance project.
Awarding a
contract for a lead service pipe replacement plan ($52,626) that will be required
by the EPA. This will include identification and replacement on the private
side as will. While the public (city) side has less than 100 known lead
services, the private side has 5000 unknown services that have to be treated as
lead until we can determine what they really are.
Personal
note – I will really miss serving on the Utilities Committee – I learned so much
about how everything works during my time there.
Board of
Health – Wednesday, May 12, 7:00 a.m.
The most
exciting action item on the Board of Health agenda is a noise variance request
for Mile of Music. From the request, it looks like MOM might be scaled down a
bit, with 600 performances occurring at 60 venues, but the great news is that
it looks like it is planned for August 5-8. From the approved noise variances,
it looks like Bike to the Beat will be happening this year as well.
The Board of
Health will also recognize outgoing chair Dr. Doug Nelson and Health Officer
Kurt Eggebrecht, who will be retiring (one year later than originally planned)
in June.
City Plan
Commission – Wednesday, May 12, 3:30 p.m.
Public
hearings on rezoning parcels on the bluff site to Central Business District,
which allows denser development and a broader range of uses than the prior zoning
of these parcels.
Public
hearing on the street vacation of S. Oak and E. Kimball discussed earlier under
Municipal Services.
Dedication of
land for widening Lawrence St. by 20 feet.
Note that
the Virtual Neighborhood Program Spring Meeting on Thursday, May 20, 2021 from
6:00 - 7:30 p.m. https://www.appleton.org/residents/neighborhood-program
Safety and
Licensing Committee – Wednesday, May 12, 5:30 p.m.
Human
Resources and Information Technology Committee – Wednesday, May 12, 6:30 p.m.
This will be
my first time to chair the committee.
Proposal to change
the way Department of Public Works employees who work shifts for shift changes
as a flat rate per day rather than the hourly rate (which varies based on the amount
of notice given for a shift change). Unplanned shift changes occur for situations
such as emergency snow and ice operations, etc. The financial impact is
estimated at $5900 spread across several budgets and will result in much easier
record-keeping.
Replacing
one parking ramp attendant with a calling service that will answer emergency
calls about the parking ramps. There is a vacant position now that will not be filled,
so no employee will lose a job.
A number of
information items about various policy changes will be reviewed, along with the
interim leadership plan for the vacant IT Director position. (Finance Director
Saucerman will also serve as interim Director of Information Technology and Network
Administrator Brad Schumann will serve as Interim Deputy Director of
Information Technology)
Finally, I
got a question from a neighbor about the colorful array of flags and paint
marks in the terrace and on the sidewalks. Director of Public Works Vandehey
confirmed that they are related to TDS installing fiber optic cable (for which
I assume you have gotten all the marketing materials like I have). Most of the
flags and markings are just locators for existing gas, water, and electric
lines. I have seen some orange flags that look like the location of the new cable,
and I know many of us have seen the new manhole covers in sidewalks – I’ve seen
the most around City Park.
It’s construction
season in Appleton, so be careful in all the construction zones and try to
remember that the inconvenience should result in smoother travel afterward.
As always, you can review full meeting agendas, minutes, and videos here:
Have a great week!
Denise
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