Appleton Common Council District 6 Update, July 25, 2021
 |
| Art From Chalk on the Avenue |
Good
afternoon District 6,
I assume a
lot of us are still basking in the glow of the Bucks’ championship and the
Brewers being on a roll getting into the second half of the season. Maybe that
will keep us from worrying about the Packers for a while as we enjoy this
summer sunshine (and heat!).
It’s nice to
see summer activities back in full swing – I took a walk to check out Art at
the Park earlier today and managed to escape without buying more than I could
carry back with me. Walking through Erb Park just as the pool was opening, it
seemed like lots of people were planning to enjoy the water this afternoon.
A note on
the pools – you may have seen the story in the Post-Crescent about the issue
with lifeguard certification. As far as I can understand, it was an
administrative issue that resulted in some course materials not being
delivered. As noted, Mead Pool is closed until it can be fully staffed by
certified lifeguards and Erb Park Pool is open with fully certified lifeguards.
The special Kids Week free admission will be extended until August 1.
A bit of
non-city business, but it does affect city residents – I attended a public
meeting at Plamann Park last week where they reviewed the Comprehensive Outdoor
Recreation Plan for the County. The Director of Parks, a consultant who has
been working with the county, and several county board supervisors were available
to present the plan to people who attended. Attendees were asked to use
stickers to vote on areas that they thought the county should prioritize and those
they did not think were a priority. I know that the country trails (CE,
Wiouwash, etc.) and the county dog park are popular with city residents. One county
board supervisor voiced his opinion that the county should not build a new dog
park; he believed that should be the responsibility of the municipalities. I did
note that Pete Marcks of District 19 was the only supervisor from the City of
Appleton present at the meeting.
You can find
the plan here: https://www.outagamie.org/home/showpublisheddocument/83342/637620390523170000
You can contact
your board supervisor (Wards 15,16 and 50 – Mike Thomas, Ward 17 – Kelly Schroeder)
to give your opinion.
You might
have noticed that there is work being done on the old Piggly Wiggly building on
Northland Avenue which is in our district. This story from the Post-Crescent
describes the purchase by a company which restores and sells classic cars. They
also hope to have some events in the space:
In addition
to the Common Council meeting last Wednesday, the Task Force on Resiliency,
Climate Mitigation and Adaptation met. We have been working with consultants
from EHSE to integrate the recommendations we submitted in our draft report
last November with the city’s existing sustainability efforts and to assign
priorities and a responsibility matrix to all the goals, strategies and actions
that were recommended. In a parallel effort, the consultants are performing a
greenhouse gas and energy audit for city facilities with the goal of establishing
a baseline from which we can set goals for our carbon and energy use. We hope
to have a number of recommendations before the Common Council as resolutions
before the term of the Task Force ends in early 2022. My hope is that the city
will establish a permanent commission on sustainability once the term of the
Task Force ends. Note that the funds for the consultants are from the Parks and
Recreation and Facilities regular budget at this point.
At the
Common Council meeting, the mayor presented proclamations recognizing Parks and
Recreation Month and Children’s Week, and we recognized the contributions of retiring long time Parade Committee member
(and long time Police and Fire Commission member) Harvey Samson.
The mayor presented
his recommendation that Deputy Human Resources Director Jay Ratchman, who has
been serving as Interim Director since the retirement of the previous Director in
April, be appointed Directory of Human Resources. Jay has been with the city
Human Resources Department since 2004, and having worked with him this term in
my role as Chair of the Human Resources and Information Technology committee, I
wholeheartedly agreed with the recommendation and was pleased to see his promotion
approved by the council.
As I wrote
in the notes for the Finance Committee meeting last time, we voted to issue
General Obligation ($14.5 million), Water System Revenue ($8.256 million) and
Sewer System Revenue ($8.845 million) bonds. As noted, a portion of the water
and sewer bonds ($1.265 million and $1.845 million) will be used to re-fund higher
rate 2011 bonds at the new very low interest rate. This will save the city over
$600,000.
The interest
rate was even better than originally presented to the Finance Committee – 1.12%
for the General Obligation bonds, 1.86% for the Water Revenue bonds and 1.82%
for the Sewer Revenue bonds. The great rates are due to the generally low
interest rates, along with the city’s exceptional bond rating.
The Department
of Public Works policy changes that have been discussed in some detail were
approved after much discussion in both the Municipal Services Committee and
Utilities Committee meetings. There were some efforts to amend the policy, but
eventually all alderpersons agreed that this was the best way to address the
environmental issues caused by the current leaf collection method, the lack of
a contractor willing to bid for the snow removal job, and our current budget/personnel
constraints. The new bulky item policy (2 per collection from April to
September) will take effect in April of 2022, and the leaf collection changes
will be phased in by area of the city.
The agenda
item that resulted in the most discussion was the allocation of excess General
Fund Balance from 2020 of $5,115,000. The fund balance was due to three of the Tax Increment
Financing (TIF) districts paying back loans from the General Fund ($1.116
milllion), CARES COVID-19 act funds that were used for budgeted public health
and public safety expenses ($1.3 million) and a health care claims and expenses
being down in 2020 ($850,000). The city’s policy is that 75% of excess general
fund balances will be used to reduce debt, leaving $1,275,000 to allocate. I was
fully prepared to vote for the Finance Director’s recommendations for the
allocation:
I wrote about the brand study in the last update. I was originally skeptical of performing this study, but reading the supporting memos from city staff convinced me that this would be valuable and we have the excess funds from 2020 to support it. (Edited after receiving some questions: The "Brand Study Implementation" line would just hold funds for the implementation if the study determines that changes should be made. Council thus far has only voted for the study and any further action will have to go before committee and Common Council again and there will be opportunity for community input.
However, I joined
the majority of my colleagues in referring the proposed allocation back to the
Finance Committee after the mayor proposed an amendment to the allocation that
would use $75,000 (taken from the Enhanced Crosswalks and park improvements
items) to fund the Transportation Utility study that was proposed in a
resolution submitted in the last Common Council meeting. The resolution at that
time called for the mayor to budget funds for a study of a Transportation Utility in
the 2022 budget. A Transportation Utility (adopted by the City of Neenah in
2019 and under consideration by other cities such as Janesville) would treat road
construction and repair as a utility and attempt to fairly charge households and
businesses a fee based on an objective measure of its use of the roadways.
Neenah uses the same methodology used for stormwater charges, while other
municipalities use some kind of trip calculator where a business would be charged
a higher rate than a household based on the number of trips generated. I do not
have any objections of principle to this kind of study. The wheel
tax revenue is not covering our costs, and the rate of inflation in the cost of
road construction and repairs is causing us to borrow more to perform this
necessary work. However, this was just presented to us at the last Common
Council meeting, and I did not feel comfortable voting to fund the study
without the resolution being considered in committee. The branding study
resolution, for example, was referred to staff to study and generate some cost
estimates and a request for proposal, and then came back to the Finance Committee
for a recommendation and to the Common Council for a vote before funds were
proposed as an allocation from the General Fund excess balance. When I expressed
my concern about the proposal to move the proposed allocation from the enhanced
crosswalks to the Transportation Utility study, the mayor reminded us that the
allocations would not change the capital budget which determines when and where
enhanced crosswalks would be built. I understood that, but I was still not
willing to support the changes without consideration by a committee. The item
will be considered at the Finance Committee meeting on Monday.
Committee
Meetings for this coming week:
Municipal
Services Committee – Monday, July 26, 4:30 p.m.
· Municipal Code Section 4-141
regarding prohibited accessory buildings
This item was referred back from the last Common Council meeting and then
held at the Municipal Services Committee meeting on July 12. The original proposal
had been to ban accessory buildings made from shipping containers AND pole
buildings larger than 200 square feet, but some members believe that as long as
pole buildings conform to zoning and building codes, they should be allowed. I
will support this based on staff recommendation.
· Six-month trial period changing the parking
on College Ave. in front of the Performing Arts Center to a standard 15 minute
loading zone from 5:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. This should simplify the current rules
which change from loading zone to taxi loading zone at 11:00 p.m.
· Approve updated InterGovernmental
Agreement with the Town of Grand Chute and Outagamie County for intersection
improvements at CTH OO/Oneida Street, CTH OO/Ballard Road and CTH
OO/Roemer Road. Appleton’s share of the cost is $512,502.
Finance Committee
– Monday, July 26, 5:30 p.m.
· Excess General Fund Balance
allocation
The item referred back from the Common Council meeting as described
above.
·
Request
to accept a grant from Mary Beth Nienhaus in the amount of $500,000 for the
construction of a pickleball complex at Telulah Park. This grant will allow the
complex, which was in the capital improvement plan but not funded to be built in
2022. It will be named the “Mary Beth Neinhaus Pickleball Complex”
Parks and Recreation Committee – Monday, July 26, 6:30 p.m.
· No action items; information items include
midyear reports, the Reid Golf Course reports, and the grant for the Pickleball Complex noted
above.
Utilities
Committee – Tuesday, July 27, 5:00 p.m.
·
Amendments
to stormwater management contracts. These contracts are handled under the
consulting budget. The work is charged on an hourly basis and is used only as
needed.
City Plan
Commission – Wednesday, July 28, 3:30 p.m.
·
Rezoning
of the parcels approved for annexation in the last Plan Commission meeting to
single family from the Temporary Agricultural zoning standard for annexed
property.
Safety
and Licensing Committee – Wednesday, July 28, 5:30 p.m.
·
Temporary
liquor license for the St. Pius parish picnic – back this year.
·
Information
items include special events:
o Made To Order, Trout Museum of Art,
Houdini Plaza, August 27, 2021
o Take Time for God, Real Hope Today,
Houdini Plaza, August 28, 2021
o Community First Fox Cities Marathon,
September 19, 2021
o Appleton West Homecoming, October 15,
2021
o Appleton Houdini 10K, Run Away
Events, November 6, 2021
o Santa Scamper, Run Away Events,
November 23, 2021
Human
Resources and Information Technology Committee – Wednesday, July 28, 6:30 p.m.
·
Request
to approve Information Technology to overhire position of Help Desk Analyst.
One Help Desk Analyst was schedule to retire on August 2. A new analyst
was hired and is being trained, but the second Help Desk Analyst announced her
resignation effective July 30, leaving the city with only the new person who
started in June. The retiring analyst has agreed to stay on until a new analyst
is hired and to help train the new person. The department is asking for 60 days
with the additional head count.
As always you can watch meeting videos and read the full minutes here:
https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx
Comments
Post a Comment