Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for 10/24/2022

 

Good morning District 6 neighbors, 

I hope everyone got a chance to get out and enjoy some of the glorious weather this weekend. I saw a lot of people working in their yards – it looks like the wind today took a lot of leaves down. Remember if you are in the “vac zone” (the area marked in red on the map below – all east of Richmond) that you should rake the leaves onto the terrace on the Sunday before the next collection week – for us that would be October 31-November 4. Brush and other yard waste should still be bundled or bagged and separated from the leaves.  

Note that bulky item pickup has stopped for the remainder of the year – it will resume in April. 

Early in-person absentee voting for the November election starts on Tuesday at the City Clerk’s office on the 6ith floor of City Hall.  

Hours for in-person absentee voting:  

The Common Council meeting last Wednesday was fairly brief. As noted, there were no proclamations or other business presented by the mayor and only three items were separated out for individual votes – one because an alder has a family member who is employed by a business seeking a special use permit for a restaurant and wished to abstain from the vote to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest. The second was for a modification of the city’s Comprehensive Plan to remove references to a possible mixed-use development at Soldier’s Square (one of the original proposals for the library). Alder Schultz wanted to make the point that the Council has stated its desire to move toward restoring that area to its original intent as a memorial. Finally, we voted to approve the list of water main repairs to be funded with the remaining budget that had been reallocated from the project to add a second raw water line from Lake Winnebago. That project came in substantially under budget, and the council had voted in July to reallocate the funds ($2.9MM) to water main repairs. Alder Doran moved to change the funding source to use unspent ARPA funds, but that motion was ruled out of order as the budget allocation was not on the agenda. This is not the first time, and I’m sure not the last, that there will be attempts to reallocate these funds, but I am not sure why. There were multiple public hearings and opportunities for the community to provide input – the allocation page is still on the city website https://www.appleton.org/government/mayor-s-office/arpa. About half of the funds have already been spent – on COVID mitigation, replacing lost city revenue and replacing lead and galvanized water lines were some of the uses. The remaining funds are to be allocated to the community via grants to non-profit organizations. 

Moving on to this week’s committee work, we have a full slate of meetings leading up to our Saturday special Finance Committee meeting where we will review the proposed 2023 budget. 

Municipal Services Committee – Monday, October 24, 4:30 p.m. 

There will be a design hearing for the 2024 project to reconstruct Linwood Avenue between College Avenue and Summer Street. The committee will also be taking up the revised street terrace policy again after city staff requested more time to  develop the proposal, which can be seen here: http://cityofappleton.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M=F&ID=f0724506-c633-48e5-84db-bdb89770b8e0.pdf. The policy was modified to specify that plantings must be lower than the allowed three feet at intersections (the “vision corner”) and close to the curb on streets where parking is allowed. Any plantings over three feet high and any structures like fencing would require a permit. Plants would have to be removed before the fall leaf collection begins each year. The committee will also be reviewing the parking revenue report and discussing the Public Works Department budget. 

Finance Committee – Monday, October 24, 5:30 p.m. 

There are no action items on the agenda for this evening, but we will be reviewing some completed project contracts and discussing the budgets for the Facilities Management, Risk Management, Finance and Legal Services Departments. 

Parks and Recreation Committee – Monday, October 24, 6:30 p.m. 

The committee will be voting on a proposed fee schedule for rental of park facilities. The proposal is to increase the rental fees to reflect the increased cost of utilities and maintenance of those facilities. 

http://cityofappleton.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M=F&ID=d2cbafa3-af03-41cf-9643-8855d7a6d130.doc 

The committee will also be reviewing the budgets for Parks and  Recreation and Reid Golf Course. 

Fox Cities Transit Commission – Tuesday, October 25, 3:00 p.m. 

The commission will be voting to award a contract for environmental and geotechnical services to Westwood Professional Services ($109,912). From the memo: The work in this project consists of installing monitoring wells, environmental testing, and completion of a Phase 2 environmental investigation needed for the Valley Transit Site. The work also includes soil borings along with a geotechnical report that will be included in the master planning process. This work is needed to be completed in order to begin the FTA Grant Funding process. This work is necessary for the grant applications for funding of a future transit center mixed use facility. Development of the transit center will be funded through federal and state aid. The commission will also be looking at the September ridership report. Valley Transit ridership is creeping up, but still has not gotten back to 2019 levels. 

Utilities Committee – Tuesday, October 25, 4:30 p.m. 

The committee will be voting on a proposal to increase the wastewater rate by 7% for 2023. The study done in 2020 recommended a 20% increase in 2021 and 4% annual increases starting in 2022. However, the 4% increase will no longer meet the cash flow and capital requirements for the utility. Utilities work differently than the rest of the city budget – the revenue from ratepayers is the source of funding for the operations, so increased needs for funding have to come from increased utility revenue rather than the city’s general fund. The proposed increase would result in about a $4 increase in the average residential customer’s quarterly bill. Appleton would still have one of the lowest sewer rates in the area: 

  

City Plan Commission – Wednesday, October 26, 3:30 p.m. 

The commission will be voting on a special use permit for a bar to be located on the south side of College Avenue and Perkins Street in a commercial strip building. We will also be voting on a request from a property owner on E. South River Street to create a double frontage lot by combining two parcels. Normally, this would not be granted, but the parcels  were actually separated in 2018. 

Community and Economic Development Committee – Wednesday, October 26, 4:30 p.m. 

The committee will be voting to approve a change to the development agreement with Merge, LLC. that would increase the amount of the city’s tax increment revenue in TIF 11 for the project from 18% or $1,386,000 to 20% or $1,610,000 due to the increases in interest rates and construction costs. The new expected tax valuation for the project would increase from $7.7 million to $8.05 million. 

Safety and Licensing Committee – Wednesday, October 26, 5:30 p.m. 

The usual license applications include the liquor license related to the special use permit before the Plan Commission and licenses for new restaurants on Ballard Road and the Parker John’s location on E. Evergreen. 

Human Resource and Information Technology Committee – Wednesday, October 26, 6:30 p.m. 

The first item on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting relates to alderperson salaries. This has become extremely politicized and the fodder for negative campaign ads run against an alder and member of the committee who is running for State Senate. The reality is that the 8.5% raise that the council voted for last year amounts to about $10 per week and people like my colleague who owns her own business probably lose money by serving on the Common Council because it takes time away from their primary job. There is no other compensation or expense allowance other than the parking passes, so any expenses for mailing, etc. are paid for my council members. We are required to take up this item every year, but any action doesn’t take effect until the second year after the vote because we cannot vote on the salary for the current term. The raise voted on in 2021 actually takes effect in 2023, and any action taken this week will take effect I 2024. I plan to propose a small increase, but I expect that what will go to the full council is a recommendation for no increase for 2024. 

We will also be voting on the compensation program recommended as a result of the study completed by the Baker Tilley firm. I will share more information about this plan with budget information later in the week. Information items include the Memorandum of Understanding with the Appleton Housing Authority where it is noted that AHA employees will stop being eligible for City of Appleton employee health insurance at the end of this year. 

I’m still working on the budget – headed to crunch time as our day-long review is this Saturday.