Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for October 2, 2024

Greetings District 6 Neighbors,

It’s another full council week, and while the agenda seems fairly light, I am sure that a couple of items are going to generate some discussion.

Before that meeting gets started , we will have a special meeting of the Municipal Services Committee to vote on a request from Appleton Downtown, Inc. to have free parking downtown on Small Business Saturday (November 30 this year). The request is for free parking at meters and in the parking ramps, but, as we discussed last year, there is really no good way to make the ramps free for a certain amount of time without risking people coming in without having to get a ticket and then being “stuck” with no option but to pay the $50 lost ticket charge. I’m sure there will be some discussion about the economic justification for sacrificing parking revenue for the day, since we don’t have predictions of Appleton’s share of increased sales tax revenue for that day, but I think that the good will and potential for a very successful day for our downtown businesses is justification for making the meters free. Last year we discussed creating a policy for events like this, but I don’t believe that has happened. I hope we push for that in this meeting and/or the full council meeting.

The mayor will present the Fire Department Civilian Awards and the City Star Award at the beginning of the council meeting, along with seven proclamations:

Domestic Violence Awareness Month
Fire Prevention Week
Indigenous Peoples Day
Mental Health Day
Coming Out Day
White Cane Safety Day
Dysautonomia Awareness Month

Mayor Woodford will also present the 2025 Executive Budget and Service Plan. The mayor generally gives an overview of the budget at this time and council members receive our copies of the budget (it was 679 pages last year and I’m wondering if we top 700 this year). This will begin our review of the budget, where we will have the opportunity to submit questions to department heads about their individual budgets in hopes of having many of them answered in order to streamline the process during the budget workshop or “Budget Saturday”, which is the special meeting of the Finance Committee (generally attended by all council members) where we will review and recommend approval of each departmental budget. Alders can propose budget amendments both in the Finance Committee and when the full council reviews and votes on adopting the budget.

There will certainly be one or more listening sessions where the public will be able to ask questions – I’ll share those dates when they are set. You generally have to register for these sessions, which have been virtual meetings recently. The budget workshop is set for November 2 from 8:00 a.m. until we finish. A public hearing on the budget will be held on November 6 at 6:00 p.m. in council chambers, and the budget adoption special session will be held on November 13 at 7:00 p.m. in council chambers.

I will be sharing details of the budget as I work my way through it.

I don’t expect too much discussion of the variance request for the driveway extension that was recommended for denial – the homeowner indicated that he was done with the process at the last Municipal Services Committee meeting. One note on this kind of issue – city staff is proposing that city code language relating to driveways and other residential parking issues be moved to the chapter of the municipal code related to zoning. We had the proposal as an information item at the Plan Commission meeting last week, and it will return as an action item in the near future. This would move this type of variance request from the Municipal Services Committee to the Board of Zoning Appeals. Honestly, I believe the Board of Zoning Appeals is the better place to handle this type of decision as its members have more expertise in construction, etc.

I’m sure there will be discussion about the Safety and Licensing Committee’s recommendation to grant an operator license to a bartender who was convicted (pleading no contest) to a fourth and therefore felony OWI. The committee gives the applicant a chance to submit evidence of rehabilitation. Both the applicant and her employer spoke at the committee meeting, with the employer praising her reliability and character. The previous incident took place in 2007, and Wisconsin law has a limit of .02 after the third offense rather than the .08 for other drivers. While I was a bit skeptical of the applicant’s statement that her consumption of Nyquil for a cold resulted in the elevated blood alcohol level (per a Google search, Nyquil is 10% alcohol, or roughly equivalent to most wine, so one would have to drink five ounces to equal the alcohol in a glass of wine). I voted to give her another chance at committee because of the length of time since the last offense, completion of an outpatient program and because the blood alcohol calculators that I looked at tell me the one beer an hour ago could cause a blood alcohol reading of .03 (higher than the threshold for prior offenders) in a 130-pound woman.

However, while I was reviewing the meeting minutes to write this update, I found myself rethinking a couple of statements by the applicant and the city attorney. I reviewed the court history and found several other charges since the previous OWI conviction, and I now believe that there is a pattern that I can’t ignore. I’ll be changing my vote tonight and voting not to approve the license.

The other biggie on the agenda is alderperson salaries. The Human Resources and Information Technology Committee voted to recommend no raise for the 2026 council. As I noted in the last update, I expected this. I do expect that that inquiries from a local blogger about possible overpayments to council members will be mentioned tonight. In 2017 (before all but three members of the current council were in office), there was an administrative error that enacted a 1% raise that had been recommended in committee but amended to no raise by the full council. Some subsequent raises were approved by less than a ¾ majority, which was not called out by the City Attorney due to some confusing guidance by the League of Wisconsin Municipalities. Apparently, the guidance was that a ¾ majority was required to approve ANY salary, but that subsequent actions required only a simple majority. That reasoning was based on a section of the Wisconsin statutes that was repealed in 2010, though the League opinion as recently as 2021 relied upon this guidance. There are no attorneys on the council, and we rely on the legal judgment of the city attorney, who in turn relies on the guidance of legal opinions from the League of Wisconsin Municipalities. I honestly think you would have to work pretty hard to find a scandal here.

We have a little bit of fall weather and I’ve seen some trees turning - usually there is a maple right down the street from me that is one of the early ones. The fall beauty quickly reminds me of the fall chores and that fall leaf collection begins the week of October 13 and will go through November 22, with another pass the week of November 24th, weather permitting . The vacuum zone has been expanded, so take a look at the map and make sure that you know whether your leaves should go on the terrace or in the street. Almost all of the district is now in the vac zone.