Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for May 6, 2027

 

Greetings District 6 Neighbors,

I want to go on record that when I moved to Wisconsin, it was drilled into my head that I couldn’t plant anything outside until Mother’s Day. Well, here we are, four days away, and my weather app keeps reminding me of a frost advisory for tonight. Enough already!

On that note, we have one more week of spring yard waste pickup.

We’re back on a normal schedule, so the first Wednesday of the month means a full council meeting. We’ll start the meeting with the presentation of the gavel to outgoing Council President Van Zeeland, who served for four terms starting in 2022. I am personally grateful to her for a number of measures she took including making sure that alderpersons were aware of and invited to city events and developing a process for training new alderpersons.

There will be a presentation of Appleton Police Department Civilian Medals of Gallantry to Mason Knott and Tori Schoen.

The council will vote on the mayor’s recommendation of Mitesh Ajmera and Choua Y Schommer as Library Board Trustees.

Moving into the regular agenda, there are several design approvals for street reconstruction in 2028 – utility work to be performed in 2027. All were recommended for approval except for S. Driscoll St. which was held until the June 8 meeting of the Municipal Services Committee pending additional traffic and parking space utilization counts. The design for Roosevelt St. between Oneida and Morrison was amended so that the reconstructed street will be 27 feet wide as opposed to the 26-foot width proposed in the design.

We had the automatically denied special event application for the Edison Family Fun Run recommended for approval at committee. The application was automatically denied because it was submitted one day late. It might be separated to confirm that Valley Transit has signed off on the route. That was the only department that had not signed off at the time of the committee meeting. It might also be an opportunity for one or more alders to reiterate that the council will not always approve these late applications.

There might be some discussion of the amendment to the development agreement for 200 W. College Avenue (the Chase Bank Building). The amendment moves the completion date to January 1, 2027 (from January 1, 2026) and provides for a partial TIF payment to be made in 2027 based on the assessed value as of January 1, 2026.

The other item that will surely generate some discussion will be the resolution expressing support for ranked choice voting. The resolution was held at our last council meeting, likely because Alder Stancil-Martin, one of the authors, was excused from the meeting. I don’t plan to vote for this resolution. While I know that ranked choice voting is used in many jurisdictions, this would be a solution looking for a problem in Appleton, where our concern is generally more about getting people to run for office rather than the complications of primary elections.

In “Other Council Business” we will take action to cancel the July 1, 2026, and January 6, 2027, council meetings.

Finally, you might have heard that Police Chief Polly Olson has announced her retirement, with an anticipated retirement date of January 4, 2027. Chief Olson has will end a 26-year career with the Appleton Police Department, where she started as patrol officer in 2001. From the announcement: “She served in capacities including School Resource Officer, Lieutenant, Captain, and the department’s first female Assistant Chief. She was named the first female Police Chief for the city of Appleton on January 4, 2023. Key recognitions during her career include 2008 Woman Officer of the Year by the Wisconsin Association of Women Police, 2010 Crisis Intervention Team Officer of the Year by NAMI Fox Valley, and 2012 Officer of the Year by the Appleton Police Department.”

As I was finishing this update, Mayor Woodford issued a press release regarding the Flock Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) cameras:

Appleton Announces Intent to End Use of Flock Cameras

Appleton Mayor Jake Woodford announced today that the City of Appleton has begun the process of ending its use of Flock Safety’s products and platform. The Mayor issued the following statement:

“After careful consideration, taking into account the feedback from our community and our own concerns, we are beginning the process of ending our use of Flock Safety’s system in the City of Appleton. Automated license plate reader (ALPR) technology has proven instrumental in solving cases, recovering stolen property, and locating missing people and we believe that if an alternative option is identified, it is an important capability to maintain for our community. That being said, concerns about the integrity of Flock’s underlying system have eroded our trust.

 The Appleton Police Department has long instituted strong internal controls over use of the product and data and has enhanced its policies to protect the public in recent months. However, such rigorous standards cannot be verified beyond the boundaries of our jurisdiction. Examples of illegitimate use of Flock data by personnel in other departments with access to the system reinforce accountability concerns that are not under the City of Appleton’s control as a customer.

 Recent events in a neighboring community have also raised questions about the accuracy of information Flock Safety provides to its customers. Regardless of the specific details, we hold ourselves to the highest standard in matters involving the public’s personal data.

 The City of Appleton is evaluating its current terms of use for Flock Safety and will be bringing forward a recommendation to the Common Council if their action is required to terminate use. In the meantime, Flock data sharing has been curtailed strictly to law enforcement agencies in northeast Wisconsin.”

I have been working with my colleague Alder Van Zeeland for some time on updating policies for the use of ALPR and other surveillance technologies. While I am happy to see this announcement, particularly in light of issues with Flock misrepresentations that brought forth in Oshkosh, I believe that there is still a need to formalize policies about the use of surveillance technology in general and I will continue my work in that regard.

Have a great week!

Denise