Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for September 17, 2025

Greetings District 6 Neighbors,

I confess – this return to summer is my fault. I needed some warmer gear for an early walk while we were having fall weather, so I hauled my winter clothes up from the basement. That, plus my plans for the Fox Cities half marathon this weekend almost guaranteed that we will have more hot weather. Enjoy it, all you summer people!

I’ll start the discussion of tonight’s full council meeting with what is NOT on the agenda. The Safety and Licensing Committee held the school truancy resolution last week because, even after almost two hours of discussion, the committee members still have questions for the school district, and because a substitute resolution was introduced late in the meeting by Alder Hartzheim, and the chair wanted to have sufficient time to discuss this version, plus an amendment to that version proposed by Alder Firkus. My initial concern with the substituted resolution is that is simply calls for the city to adopt the state statute, which contains “dispositions”, or consequences that can be imposed by a judge, that many members of the community, members of the Safety and Licensing Committee and AASD deem too punitive. There had already been a lot of discussion as to whether the city could impose its own dispositions in a new truancy ordinance, how circuit court judges could impose dispositions (since Appleton does not have a municipal court, municipal code violations are handled in the Outagamie County Circuit Court), and how ticketing would work.

Further questions about the proposed substitute resolution revolve around the council’s ability to direct AASD’s policies and the reporting proposed in Alder Firkus’ amendment.

We’ll take up the truancy resolution again at the Safety and Licensing Committee meeting on September 24 at 5:30 p.m. We have not really heard from any community members who are not a part of AASD in support of reinstating a truancy ordinance. I spent most of my time headed into the committee meeting last week looking at chronic absenteeism figures from the Wisconsin Policy Forum Wisconsin Policy Forum | School DataTool – 2025 Student Participation  for many school districts in Wisconsin, the vast majority of which are in a municipality which has a truancy ordinance that basically adopts the state statute. The data is from the Department of Public Instruction and can be broken out by race/ethnicity, economic status, English proficiency and disability status. The chronic absenteeism rates seem to be more related to the makeup of the districts than whether a truancy ordinance is in place. AASD has undertaken many initiatives that studies reviewed by the Wisconsin Policy Forum show to be promising in reducing chronic absenteeism. From Solutions for Chronic Absenteeism in the Wisconsin Policy Forum Focus Report of October 2024 “Overall, these districts have adopted supportive rather than punitive measures such as referring students for truancy tickets or involvement with the juvenile justice system. This approach generally aligns with research discouraging responses that do not account for factors outside a family’s control or that interfere with a positive home-school relationship.”

The council meeting will begin with three proclamations from the mayor:

• Constitution Week
• National Service Dog Month
• See Tracks, Think Train Week

The first two are what you would think – the last is about Rail Safety Week

We’ll also get a review of the Appleton Police Department Staffing Study. Chief Olson discussed some of the findings and the plans for APD in light of these findings in a recent Safety and Licensing Committee meeting; this item will provide more of an opportunity for the full council to hear about the study and the APD’s plans to address the study findings.

With the truancy ordinance off the agenda, the only item that I can be sure will be separated for individual discussion and vote is the recommendation from the Human Resources and Information Technology Committee for a 2.5% salary increase for alderpersons starting with the 2027 term (after the spring elections of 2027). This would be an increase of $168.75, making the total salary $6918.75. The total cost would be $2531.25 per year. The raise, the first since 2023 (voted on in 2021), would amount to about $3.25 per week.

If the applicant appears at the council meeting, we may have a separate vote on the bartender license that was unanimously recommended for denial by the Safety and Licensing Committee. The applicant did not present any evidence of rehabilitation at that meeting, so the committee was bound by law to recommend denial. I am skeptical that they will be able to present compelling evidence of rehabilitation given the recency of the latest conviction, which they admit occurred after “being overserved.”

We have a request to reconsider the decision of the council at the last meeting regarding the naming process for the current Veterans Park off Memorial Drive just south of the river. The vote at the last meeting would likely result in a free-for-all on names for the park, as the vote essentially disregarded park naming policy that has been in place for many years. I was one of the nay votes last time and I’m glad to see us consider this again.

I’d like to remind you about the survey on the draft comprehensive plan. You can view the plan and take the survey (and maybe win some cool Appleton swag) here.

Tomorrow night is the Fall Registered Neighborhood Program meeting. The meeting is at the Scheig Center in Veterans Memorial Park from 6:00 until 7:30 p.m. You do not have to be part of a registered neighborhood to attend. The meeting will include a presentation from McKenzy Wagner, the Appleton Police Department’s Community Engagement Specialist, on updates to the Neighborhood Watch program, including increased integration with the City’s Registered Neighborhood Program and an updated branding and modernization effort for neighborhood watch. The meeting will also include a presentation/engagement session from Julie Filapek of NeighborWorks Green Bay, who is facilitating the City’s Neighbors In Action Workshop (NiAW) sessions.

Have a great week!

Denise