Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for April 24, 2023

Photo from WBAY

Greetings District 6 Neighbors, 

At the risk of starting each update with a weather report, I’d like to go on record as being ready for some warmer weather. It probably wouldn’t be so bad if we hadn’t gotten that little teaser a few days back. 

Although it doesn’t feel like spring yet, remember that the spring yard waste pickup continues through the week ending May 12 on the day following your normal trash pickup day.  The spring collection is done by hand rather than with the vacuum attachments, which allows us to include branches and brush that can’t be mixed with the fall leaves. However, hand collection also requires us to bag or bundle the yard waste. You can also take yard waste to either the Glendale or Whitman sites free of charge. 

Don’t forget to catch the Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Appleton episode tonight at 8:00 on PBS! 

It was a busy week for the Common Council as new and re-elected members were sworn in and we had the informal organizational meeting where proposed changes to the Council Rules were discussed. I discussed some of those proposed changes in the last update. There was robust discussion at the informal meeting with the hope of reaching a general consensus on the rules before the formal organizational meeting that was held last Wednesday immediately before the regular Common Council meeting. 

I’m pleased that my colleagues voted to continue the option for remote participation, which as I noted before, gives people much greater flexibility, while not resulting in a large number of people failing to attend meetings in person. Most of the rest of the proposed rule changes were administrative, relating to internal variations of Roberts Rules of Order that the council has adopted over the years. I was somewhat disappointed that my colleagues chose to discontinue the practice of having an alder give an original invocation at each meeting in favor of a scripted statement that will be read at the beginning of the meeting. While the mayor can issue proclamations relating to special events, the invocation has been a way for individual alders to highlight something they care about. The invocations have not generally been prayers – I personally don’t believe that specific religious observations should be included in government meetings. Since I had been scheduled to give the invocation at Wednesday’s meeting and had prepared one, my colleagues indulged me in allowing me to give the invocation – it was about Earth Day. 

We also received our committee assignments for this council year at the organizational meeting. I will be chairing the Community and Economic Development Committee and continuing to serve on the Finance Committee and the Human Resources and Information Technology Committee. I was also elected by my colleagues to serve again on the City Plan Commission. 

Alder Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) was re-elected to serve as Council President and Alder Kris Alfheim (District 11) was elected Council Vice-President. 

Moving to the regular council meeting, the only item that prompted any discussion was the resolution to get rid of No Mow May (meaning that the restriction to the allowable height of grass would stay at eight inches without exception). I won’t go over the discussion as it was the same as we have had for two committee meetings, but the resolution was defeated, and No Mow May will continue in Appleton. 

As we move into this week’s committee meetings, each committee will handle some organizational details such as the election of a Vice Chair, confirming meeting times, etc. One note is that all of the members agreed to switch the times of the Community and Economic Development Committee and Human Resources and Information Technology Committee to accommodate the schedule of one of the members – a reminder that almost everyone on the Common Council has a “day job” so I’m glad we are able to be flexible. After this week, CEDC will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday of the week following full council meetings and HR/IT will meet at 4:30 p.m.  

On the agendas for this week: 

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

In addition to the housekeeping items, the committee will be voting on the bids for the restriping and traffic signal work on the previously approved College Avenue reconfiguration project. The bids opened last Thursday, so there are no proposals included in the minutes. Committee members will get the information at the beginning of the meeting. I would expect the recommendations to be approved unless there is an issue with the bids coming in over the budget. The committee will also take up a resolution submitted by Alder Wolff that directs the Department of Public Works to re-evaluate the current street light policy. The city leases the vast majority of the streetlights from WE energies, and while conversion to LED is underway, savings won’t be realized until 2025, and costs continue to rise. I’ll be interested to see what the staff response is here. 

The resolution regarding the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides appears on the agenda as an information item, but that resolution has been withdrawn. I wrote about this last week – based on the staff input, we (the authors) agreed that we need to withdraw the resolution as written and work on something that would focus on public education and the measures that are within local control, such as making sure that public sidewalks are free of granular residue, etc. 

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

We will be voting on a lease to replace the dance studios currently located in City Center. These studios are used by Unity Dance Academy, the program offered by the Parks and Recreation Department.  As you may know, a private developer is acquiring space in the City Center. They have offered to buy out the current lease through December of 2024 and to provide moving expenses for the studio in order to proceed with their development plans. The lease proposed is for space in the Northland Mall for five years, subject to the Common Council approving the funding in each year’s budget. The current lease at $7.29 per square foot ($46,247.76) is not obtainable in this market – the new lease would be $10.50 per square foot for the first two years ($69,815 per year), then $11.00 per square foot for the final three years ($73,139 per year). The lease would include everything except utilities and housekeeping. I like the idea of using space in the Northland Mall (located in District 6) and would hope that activity would encourage additional tenants in that space. The ample free parking available should be a benefit to dancers and their parents. I hope that the increased rent doesn’t result in Unity having to increase fees too much – as a former dance mom of many years, I recognize the benefit of affordable dance instruction in a non-competitive environment. I will miss seeing all the little dancers around City Center when I’m there for meetings. 

Speaking of leases, the city has been offered some space in City Center at no charge that would replace storage space in the former Blue Ramp. The memo notes that it would increase the condo fee payment by $7,753 per year. This is due to the common charges increasing from having the extra space. 

We will also be voting to approve an agreement with Goodwill Industries to accept its funding of upgrades to the Miracle League field in Memorial Park ($185,650). Because the city owns the property, we will bid the work and provide the project management. I have been able to watch a couple of games at the field and it is really heartwarming to see the opportunity that the Miracle League provides for children and young people of varying abilities to participate in a team sport. We’re grateful to Goodwill for the contribution. 

 

We’ll be voting on some grants – incoming and outgoing. First, the city has been awarded a 

 $134,180 Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. The grant is to be used for seed funding for sustainable actions, renewable energy, etc. for government facilities. I know that the city team has a number of projects on the drawing board, so this grant will be very welcome. As part of the ARPA allocations for affordable housing, we’ll be voting on awarding $200,000 to Fox Cities Habitat for Humanity. 

 

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

 

The one action item for Parks and Rec other than housekeeping is a resolution submitted by Alders Wolff, Del Toro and Schultz that would suspend mowing of Ellen Kort Peace Park for the month of May (No Mow May) other than removing noxious weeds and trailside grooming. Because this park is as yet undeveloped, it would give us the opportunity to get more data on the effectiveness of No Mow May by leaving a fairly large area of the park unmown. I will be interested to hear what staff has to say about this proposal, but it seems like a pretty good experiment to me. 

The committee will also be getting an update on Lungaard Park and the dance studios as discussed in the notes on the Finance Committee meeting. 

 

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

 

The committee has no action item other than housekeeping, but the water main break report in information items shows only one break in March! 

 

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

 

We will be voting on the rezoning of the parcel at Ballard and Werner Road (39.913 acres) that was recently annexed from agricultural to multi-family. 

 

The other action item is annexation of right-of-way land for the extension of Baldeagle Drive and Lightning Drive north of Edgewood Drive (currently in the Town of Grand Chute). 

 

Community and Economic Development Committee – Wednesday, April 26, 4:30 p.m. (to be moved to 6:30 p.m. for future meetings) 

 

We’ll be voting to apply for Emergency Housing Homeless (EHH) funding and approving the city continuing to act as the lead agency on behalf of the Fox Cities Housing Coalition. 

 

There is a possibility that we will go into closed session to discuss negotiations for a development agreement and investing city funds and then reconvene into open session. Closed sessions are used when items of a sensitive nature, such as ongoing contract negotiations, etc. are discussed. Any contracts that would result would be noticed and voted on as a normal public item. 

 

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

 

The two action items are a hearing on suspending the alcohol license Chadwick’s Bar after three citations for underage drinking or the presence of underage individuals on the premises and a temporary beer license to the Trout Museum for Art at the Park. 

 

Information items include reports on alcohol violations and the directors’ reports. 

 

Human Resources and Information Technology Committee – Wednesday, April 26, 6:30 p.m. (moving to 4:30 p.m. for future meetings) 

 

We will be voting on approval of a contract for network managed solutions to Heartland Business Systems. After an assessment of IT needs in early 2022, the council voted to approve $75,000 for moving the city’s network and data center to a managed service. Managed services are becoming the norm in IT – it guarantees 24-hour support and relieves the organization from having to provide multiple technical specialists. However, all the bids came in well over the budgeted amount. The IT Director reworked the bids to separate the one-time remediation costs from the ongoing maintenance costs and re-bid the contracts, excluding the Data Center Managed Services component. The one-time costs will be funded through excess general fund balance and the managed services for the network is approximately $30,000 less than the budgeted amount for the network and data center management. Data center management will remain in-house, augmented by consulting as necessary within the existing consulting budget. Kudos to Director Popp and team for finding a workable solution that will still give the city reliable network and data center support. 

 

We will also be voting on a Table of Organization change for the Police Department. They are requesting that a Community Engagement Specialist position be created rather than filling the existing vacant Administrative Support Specialist. Streamlining some processes in Administrative Support has enabled the support specialist position to go unfilled. The Community Engagement Specialist, a civilian position, would report to Lt. Cash in the Community Resource Unit. Salary savings for 2024 would be $12,000 and the department will budget for the position in 2024 as the new position would be at a higher pay grade. 

 

Have a great week! Spring is coming!