Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for October 10, 2022
Good afternoon District 6 neighbors,
The best thing that can be said about the Packer game yesterday is that it was over in time to let us enjoy a beautiful fall Sunday. 
Most of you are aware of the big items from the Common Council special session last Wednesday – the council voted 8-7 to proceed to the next step in determining whether to allow the Trout Museum of Art to relocated to Ellen Kort Peace Park. This will involve site analysis, including environmental factors, stormwater and traffic. We heard that most of the cost of this work is to be borne by the Trout. As noted in the last note, I voted against moving forward at the time because we had no time between the presentation and the vote for constituent input, and the majority of the input from those of you who contacted me was against museum moving to the park. The proposal does use less of the park that I believe any of us anticipated, so I am trying to keep an open mind in anticipation of the next presentation. I am always interested to hear what you think as well.
Moving to the regular Common Council meeting, the mayor issued a number of proclamations, but because the meeting didn’t start until 8:30 after the special session, he did not read any of them at the meeting.
- Indigenous Peoples Day
- Coming Out Day
- White Cane Awareness Day
- Fire Prevention Month
- Domestic Violence Awareness Month
- Mental Health Day
We then received our copies of the proposed executive budget for 2023. This year’s book comes in at 679 pages, so you know how I will be spending the next three weeks. The mayor gave a presentation about the budget – once I get a copy of it, I will share some of the slides. This will be a difficult budget year – although net new construction (the basis for our tax levy limit) was 1.9 % of the total valuation – higher than the state average, the Consumer Price Index increased 8%. Cities pay for goods and services just like households, so we are squeezed. I will note as Mayor Woodford did in his presentation that cities, towns and villages have been facing the reality that state revenue sharing has decreased over the past two decades, while state income tax revenue has tripled. This puts more of the burden of running our city and maintaining our infrastructure on local taxpayers and forces us to take on more debt, while the state sits on 5.5 billion dollars of taxpayer money.
The mayor and team recognize that city employees are also facing increased costs for their households, so a priority was appropriately compensating our workforce to recognize their service and to retain employees. A five percent merit-based increase for non-union employees is part of the budget. This increase will be funded by reallocating other budget funds.
I’ll be sharing more details about the budget as we move toward adoption on November 9. Note that there will be a public listening session on October 18 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. This will be a virtual session. You can call 920-832-5814 to sign up. There will also be a public hearing on the budget on November 2 at 6:00 p.m. This meeting will be held in person at City Hall. I’ll remind you again as we get closer to the date.
We also voted to approve the resolution supporting our City Clerk, her staff and citizen election workers, and to reject all the bids for the library project in hopes of rebidding that project in early 2023. I wrote about the Finance Committee meeting where this was discussed in the last update – there was no further discussion in the full council meeting. I remain hopeful that we will be able to rework some of the design and that conditions improve so that we can actually get reasonable bids and start the project next year.
Moving on to this week’s committee meetings:
Municipal Services Committee – Monday, October 10, 4:30 p.m.
The modification to the street terrace policy had been held until this meeting, but city staff requested that it be held again until October 24 to allow some issues to be resolved internally with drafting the new policy. The committee will also review the reconstruction plans for Rankin Street and Summit Street. In information items, they will review the September Bird E-Scooter Report (no accidents and three complaints) and the Inspection Permit Summary for September.
Finance Committee – Monday, October 10, 5:30 p.m.
We are being asked again to reject bids that were over the budgeted amount, in this case for project at the wastewater treatment plant. The Utilities Department will review the project bidding documents to see what can be deferred to a future year and rebid the reduced-scope project. We are, however, voting on recommendations to approve some other bids for work at the wastewater treatment plant, at least one of which was a bid that we had rejected earlier, so perhaps we are seeing some easing of costs.
- Biogas boiler system upgrades – Rohde Brothers, Inc. ($373,464)
- Telulah Park pavilion repairs – RJM Construction, LLC. ($177,600)
- Wastewater treatment plant painting – SDS Painting Co. ($131,760)
Utilities Committee – Tuesday, October 11, 4:30 p.m.
The committee will be voting on changes to the city’s erosion and sediment control policy and the accompanying ordinance changes. Most of the change involves removing the permitting requirement for small projects in keeping with state rules. The city previously required permitting on smaller projects than the state did. They’ll also be voting to approved water main projects that will be funded by remaining funds from the second raw water line project (where the bid was substantially UNDER the budget for a change) and reviewing the water main break report.
Board of Health – Wednesday, October 12, 7:00 a.m.
We have only information items for this meeting, including noise variances granted in September and a review of the proposed 2023 budget.
City Plan Commission – Wednesday, October 12, 3:30 p.m.
The commission will be voting on a proposal for a new restaurant at the site of the former Paradise Grill. The plan is for a breakfast and lunch restaurant offering to-go items and sit-down dining, with alcohol available for purchase and a plan to host private events. I am excited about this because it comes from the owner of the fabulous Whisk and Arrow bakery, which is located far too close to my home to keep me safe from temptation. We’ll also be voting to approve the final plat for the Trail View Estates South subdivision between French Road and Cherryvale Avenue.
Community and Economic Development Committee – Wednesday, October 12, 4:30 p.m.
The committee will be voting on a variance request from Parker John’s BBQ (to be located in the old Beefeaters location on N. Evergreen) to allow construction of a storage shed on the property within the Northeast Business Park. They will also be hearing a preview of the 2023 Community and Economic Development Department budget.
Safety and Licensing Committee – Wednesday, October 12, 5:30 p.m.
The committee will be reviewing the usual license applications. In information items, they will be reviewing the 2023 Fire Department and Legal Services Department budgets and hearing about a grant application for mannequins for safety training for the fire department.
Human Resources/Information Technology Committee – Wednesday, October 12, 6:30 p.m.
We’ll be reviewing the new contract agreement reached with the firefighters’ union. There are some changes to vacation and promotion policies. Salary increases as shown:
• 2023 = 2.25% increase on 12/1/23
• 2024 = 1% increase on 7/1/24
• 2024 = 2% increase on 12/1/24
• 2025 = 2.50% increase on 12/1/25
• Paramedic pay 2.75% over Fire Fighter/EMT
We will also be reviewing changes to some fringe benefit policies for non-represented employees.
Information items include the Information Technology Department budget for 2023, the Human Resources Department budget and some general HR policy changes.
As always, you can review meeting agendas, minutes and videos here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx
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Denise
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