Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for November 2, 2022

 

Good afternoon District 6 neighbors,

Although I am ready for this warm/hot weather to be over, it was actually nice to have warmer weather for Halloween so that all the little goblins didn’t have to wear winter gear over their costumes. Although the weather still seems like summer, we are well into the fall leaf collection period (some raking finally got done at my house this week, probably to the great relief of our neighbors). You may have heard that the Department of Public Works is experiencing a few growing pains with the new vacuum process, but those should be worked out shortly. Our zone is due for a pickup this week, and then another the week of November 14. I would expect that we will end up with the extra pickup the week of November 20, but weather being weather, we don’t know. Remember that in the vacuum zone (generally between Richmond and Meade and Northland and Parkway for District 6) we put the leaves on the terrace, with other yard waste bundled or bagged and placed apart from the leaves.

For the Common Council and city directors, we will be finishing up work on the 2023 budget this week and next. Tonight (Wednesday, 11/2) there will be a public hearing on the budget at 6:00 p.m. in council chambers. This will be the opportunity for citizens to voice their opinion on the budget. The overview is linked here: http://cityofappleton.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M=F&ID=6e5727d3-65ad-4dde-8c16-1cd086c6d502.pdf

And the full budget here: https://www.appleton.org/home/showpublisheddocument/24910/638006451941470000

We had our workshop on the 2023 budget Saturday, where each department head presents their budget and the council has the opportunity to ask questions. This is formally a meeting of the Finance Committee, and was my first budget Saturday as a member of the committee, but all alders attend and ask questions, although only committee members vote to recommend approval of each departmental budget. I found the whole budget process this year challenging. We have so much work to do in so many areas, but we have limited resources if we do not want to take on too much debt, particularly now that interest rates are so much higher than they have been. I believe that the mayor and city staff have developed a good plan to curb the rate of borrowing, but the fact is that the city has a substantial amount of debt from prior years’ borrowing. Of the 6.6% proposed property tax increase, 4.7% will go to bringing down that debt. Of the capital improvement budget for the next 10 years, 4.61% will go to the new library building, with the rest being about equally split between infrastructure (streets, sidewalks, water and sewer) and facilities, equipment and quality of life (fire stations, vehicles, parks and trails). I’m attaching a PDF that will help to explain some of the budget.

I am not looking forward to a property tax increase any more than any other citizen – like a lot of you, my husband and I are retired (mostly) and we have seen the effects of inflation on our household budget. However, when we moved to Wisconsin and the Fox Valley, we chose to live in Appleton in large part due to the quality of life we have here – a small town feel with the amenities found in bigger cities – and we know that having wonderful parks, an outstanding library and great city services attracts people like us who can choose to locate an any number of nearby places. Most of those outstanding city services are provided by city employees who also pay property taxes, buy gas and groceries and have seen their budgets affected by increasing costs. I feel that it is important to keep those folks working in Appleton and I support the proposed 5% merit increase for our city employees. We are lucky enough to have faced less of a problem with staff turnover than some of our neighbors, and in most cases have been able to promote internally to fill vacancies caused by recent retirements of directors in key departments. Although it’s called a merit increase, all employees who meet or exceed performance expectations will be eligible. In my past life as a manager, I have participated in salary exercises where we had to defend increases for our staff, knowing that if one person gets a bigger raise, then someone else has to get a smaller one, and it is very difficult. I think the way the city has handled merit raises the last three years is appropriate. I also commend the work done by the Human Resources Department and all city staff in completing the compensation study. The study will result in a reduction in the number of pay grades, and a simplification in the pay structure overall. The study also showed that employees value flexibility, so HR has implemented some job sharing programs, flexible hours and additional remote work options for those positions where it is possible. We are also offering (at no cost to the city, but administered as part of the benefits program) the option for vision and dental insurance for employees.

Please try to attend the public hearing if you have concerns or wish to offer an opinion, or contact me with your proposals for changes in the budget. Amendments need to be submitted by the end of this week before the full council takes up the budget on November 9.

The regular council meeting will follow the public hearing on the budget. In that meeting, the mayor will offer several proclamations, including for Small Business Saturday, which is one of my favorite days in Appleton. We will also get an update on the library project.

One of the items I think will get separated for individual consideration include the change to the terrace planting policy, which got a lot of discussion in the Municipal Services Committee meeting before eventually being recommended for approval 4-1. A reminder that the draft policy is here: http://cityofappleton.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M=F&ID=f0724506-c633-48e5-84db-bdb89770b8e0.pdf I don’t see any reason to vote against these changes but I hope there is some kind of education program for residents to make the policy clear.

I also suspect that the proposal to change the employee compensation program that has been discussed in these updates will be separated, if only to allow the Human Resources Director to fully explain what has been recommended. As I noted above, this recommendation comes after a long study where every employee participated in an exercise that led to the development of the new pay structure.

Aldermanic salaries may come up for discussion in the full council meeting after the HR/IT committee recommended no increase in 2024. I had planned to introduce 2-3% just to get the discussion started, but a colleague quickly moved for 0 and it was clear that there was no support on the committee for anything else. It is more important to me to approve the pay structure for city employees, but as always, I go on record that keeping alder salaries extremely low acts as a gatekeeping measure, preventing some from being able to serve.

http://cityofappleton.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M=F&ID=b41ea755-3a50-469b-abca-8c5a1405dea4.pdf

Final note – just a couple of days remain for early voting at City Hall. Voting continues today and tomorrow until 4:30 and Friday until noon. If you are still holding an absentee ballot, you should get it in the mail now or return it to the city clerk’s office soon.

Have a great week!