Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for the Week of April 20, 2025
Greetings District 6 Neighbors,
Photo From the Public Works Site
Once again, Mother Nature foils our best-laid plans. Dear husband hauled my bike up from the basement and filled up the tires for my switch to biking to City Hall for meetings, which probably caused the rain and chill we’re experiencing today. At least the weather held off for Easter morning activities.
Last week was the Back-to-School equivalent for the Common Council. The newly elected and re-elected members from the even districts were sworn in on Tuesday evening, and we held our informal organizational meeting on Tuesday, followed by the formal organizational meeting on Wednesday evening before the regular Common Council meeting. We adopted one rule change based on a resolution submitted last year. The resolution originally called for an alder who had three unexcused absences from council or committee meetings to be stripped of their committee assignments. An amended version of the resolution which calls for a meeting with the mayor and council leadership to …”find a solution or facilitate a Committee appointment swap.” passed 14-1. I voted for the amended version, even after pointing out in the meeting that there is really never a reason for an unexcused absence – the only requirement for an absence to be excused is that council or committee leadership be notified. I understand that the situation last year with a new alder was the result of some unusual events and I don’t expect that it will be a problem again.
Alder Van Zeeland was elected for her fourth term as Common Council President and Alder Wolff was elected as Common Council Vice President. I was re-elected as the council representative on the City Plan Commission. We received our new committee assignments – I will continue as chair of the Municipal Services Committee and will continue serving on the Finance Committee and the Safety and Licensing Committee and will return to the Community Development Committee.
At the regular Common Council meeting, we heard the works of the winners of the 2025 sidewalk poetry contest, who all seemed really excited to read their winning poems and have them inscribed on sidewalks around the city.
There were three items separated for individual consideration:
- The request for a two-stall loading zone in front of the new Trout/Lawrence complex was passed as amended by the Municipal Services Committee to have a six-month trial period, during which the Traffic Department will continue to monitor the availability of parking within a block of the businesses in the vicinity of the loading zone.
- The request for a change of agent for the alcohol license of Tandem Wine and Beer LLC was approved after the owner/agent resubmitted the request that was deemed incomplete by the Safety and Licensing Committee, resulting in a recommendation for denial.
- The annexation of approximately 95 acres of property at 4700 N. Richmond St. (the Dorn annexation) was approved. Alder Hayden separated this item to note concerns from his constituents about increased traffic from the proposed new subdivision.
All committees except the Parks and Recreation Committee and the City Plan Commission will be meeting this week. Each committee will have the housekeeping items of electing a vice chair, officially setting the meeting time, and designating the official contact person (almost always the director of the department over which the committee has jurisdiction).
Municipal Services Committee – Monday, April 21, 4:30 p.m.
In addition to the standard housekeeping items, we will elect a member of the Central Equipment Agency Review Committee. CEA is the department that “owns” all of the vehicles and capital equipment for the city. Each department is assessed for their portion of CEA rather than every department having to have its own capital equipment budget and accounting. A member of the Municipal Services Committee and the Finance Committee, along with the directors of the Finance and Public Works Department make up this committee, which meets a few times per year to approve new equipment purchases, transfers and sales of equipment, etc.
We’ll be voting on a request from a resident on Cherry Court to have a dumpster on the street through June 27 during reconstruction of a garage. The first 35 days of such a request can be approved administratively, but longer terms require committee and council approval.
Another dumpster request (construction season is in full swing despite winter trying to hang on) is to extend the permit for the dumpster at 318 W. College Ave. Permits that take up parking stalls include the fee plus $9 per day per meter for the time that the spaces are blocked.
Finally, we have a minor modification to the contract with Collins Engineers for the required annual bridge inspection. The Lawe St. reconstruction is requiring an extra inspection trip, resulting in an $1,139.77 addition to the contract.
Finance Committee – Monday, April 21, 5:30 p.m.
An additional housekeeping item for this committee is the election of a member of the Tax Payment Appeals Board. This board “gives taxpayers a venue to appeal their delinquent payment(s). The Board is then responsible for ruling on the timeliness of property tax payments when taxpayers pay late.”
Our first agenda item returns after being held at the last meeting because Director Gazza was unable to attend. The Facilities Department requested that excess funds from three of their 2024 projects be carried over to fund Appleton’s share of new signage in City Center East/West as a result of the Fox Commons development and for consulting to create a sustainability and climate action master plan. (total funding - $127,631, of which about $20,000 would be for the signage). The item was originally recommended for denial 4-1, with my vote being the only one for approval, but was referred back to committee by the Common Council. I have made my views clear about the need for Appleton to take action to plan for climate mitigation, given the multiple catastrophic flooding events we experienced last year. I’ve also written about when the use of consultants is cost effective and justified. My understanding is that the master planning project will be presented at the meeting so that my fellow committee members understand the need for and the scope of the project. I am also hoping to get a cost breakdown on the signage proposal as that figure seems high.
On a less contentious note, our next item will be to approve the contract for the Lundgaard Park Pavilion (Milbach Construction Services Company - $851,384 with contingency). The good news is that the park has received $805,000 to date in private donations, and that the winning bid, including contingency, was within the budgeted amount.
We will also vote on awarding the contract for roof replacements on the Yellow and Green parking ramps (Weinert Roofing – $191,860 with contingency). Once again, I’m pointing out that the parking utility is funded by parking revenue (permits, meter revenue and fines) and not the general fund. A citizen did point out to the Finance Director that some taxpayer funds technically pass to the parking utility in the form of payment for employee parking passes.
Our final item is a request from the Finance Department to establish a reserve fund for ARPA-related obligations. The ARPA funding received by the city was deposited in a separate account for record-keeping purposes, with funds being disbursed as projects expenditures were made. There is $1.5 million in interest that has been accrued – not subject to ARPA requirements. From the memo submitted:
“…City staff recommend establishing a reserve using the accrued interest to cover potential increases in project costs or to fulfill obligations for ARPA-related projects through December 2026.
Contract increases will remain subject to Council approval in accordance with the City’s Procurement Policy. At the end of the ARPA expenditure period, any remaining funds in the reserve would be allocated in accordance with the General Fund Excess Fund Balance Policy.”
The General Fund Excess Fund Balance Policy mandates that 75% of any excess fund balance from the General Fund be used to pay down debt.
Fox Cities Transit Commission – Tuesday, April 22, 2:50 p.m.
The commission will get an update on the WisGo fare collection system and vote to approve fare capping made possible by the system. Basically, the system can keep track of daily payments, and when they reach the amount of a monthly pass, stop collecting the fare for that month such that a rider never pays more than the monthly pass amount.
They will also vote on approving the March 2025 payments.
Information items include the Financial and Ridership reports and 1st quarter Key Performance Indicators.
Utilities Committee – Tuesday, April 22, 4:30 p.m.
The committee agenda doesn’t show any action items other than the new year housekeeping items.
Community Development Committee – Wednesday, April 23, 4:30 p.m.
The committee will hold a required public hearing on the 2025-2029 Consolidated Plan for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. The plan is presented as an information item later on the agenda. Because Appleton receives funding from the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) to assist low- and moderate-income households with a variety of different needs. As a condition of receiving these funds, the city is required to develop a consolidated plan every five years that describes the priorities and goals for the expenditure of the funds on housing and community development. The consolidated plan runs 158 pages, but the department provided a memo outlining the basic goals:
Action items include a proposal to increase the erosion control permit fee from $40 t0 $50. This fee increase was approved in the 2025 budget but had not been included in the updated fee schedule.
There is also a request to renew a lease with Maple Lawn Dairy on approximately 47 acres of land in Southpoint Commerce Park for crop farming. Agricultural use is beneficial in these undeveloped areas because it limits erosion, eliminates the need for weed cutting and minimizes the chances of wetlands formation while generating some revenue while the city is marketing the land for sale.
In addition to the CDBG Consolidated Plan, information items include the inspections permit summary for March and a request to elevate an existing position within the Community Development Department to better align with departmental needs and shared administrative needs. This item will be an action item for the Human Resources and Information Technology Committee.
Safety and Licensing Committee – Wednesday, April 23, 5:30 p.m.
All of the 2025-2026 alcohol license renewals are presented as a single action item, along with a couple of agent changes and temporary event licenses.
The committee will also take up an operator license application that is recommended for denial by the Appleton Police Department due to a criminal conviction. In this particular case, the offense was an “exempt” offense for which we are not allowed to issue the license.
Human Resources and Information Technology Committee – Wednesday, April 23, 6:30 p.m.
The upgrade of the position in Community Development from Administrative Assistant to Administrative and Accounting Services Specialist is an action item for this committee. As noted above, the person in the position has taken over additional responsibilities as the department expanded to three divisions. The pay increase would be funded from the department’s existing personnel related funding due to savings realized this fiscal year.
The committee will also vote on a social media policy for the City of Appleton.
The will also vote on changes to the Fringe Benefit Policy relating to vacation time carryover and PTO accrual during an unpaid leave of absence.
Information items include an update on the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system conversion. The city has been undertaking a years-long migration from in-house developed systems to an integrated system. At this point, all the modules except for Utility Billing and Permitting and Licensing have been converted. The Utility Billing module has experienced some delays due to the complexity of the project but is planned to go live at the end of July, at which point work will begin on the Permits and Licensing module. As a former IT project manager who spent the last third of my career working on this type of system conversion, I can say that it is a massive undertaking and involves many more people than just the IT staff. The fact that most of the work has been completed without much of a hiccup is a testament to all of the team members involved.
The committee will also get an update on APD and Valley Transit staffing, the contract negotiations with Appleton firefighters and review the Recruitment Status Report.
In non-meeting news…
Curbside yard waste collection continues through May 9.
Please put waste in paper lawn and leaf bags or tie branches with biodegradable string or twine. More info can be found here.
Note that last year the Common Council voted to end No Mow May in favor of supporting “Slow Mow Summer.” This action means that vegetation in residential yards cannot exceed 8 inches, and the city will return to enforcing the code year-round.
Please refer to the Slow Mow Summer page for things you can do to support pollinators in your landscape.
Have a great week!
Denise
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