Monday, December 22, 2014

What you may not know: Week of December 22

As you might imagine, the holiday week is a quiet time for the Appleton Common Council and its committees. All of our regularly scheduled committees are taking the week off, although three have rescheduled their meetings and still have business to conduct before the full council meets again on January 7:

  • The Safety & Licensing Committee meeting scheduled for Thursday will instead be held at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, December 30. The full agenda has not been released but will include a review of the decision to temporarily remove one local company from the city's towing list.
  • The City Plan Commission meeting scheduled for Monday will instead take place at 4 p.m. on Monday, January 5. Action items will again include a request to re-zone the former site of the Woolen Mills for a planned residential development.
  • Finally, the Community & Economic Development Committee will hold a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 7, immediately before our regularly-scheduled full council meeting. Their agenda includes a request to approve the purchase of two lots in the Northeast Industrial Park.
And with that, this blog is off for a couple of weeks for the holidays. I'll be back on Monday, January 5 with a preview of that week's council activity. Until then, I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Monday, December 8, 2014

What you may not know: Week of December 8

After a few quiet weeks, the Appleton Common Council has a busy committee week scheduled in what's likely to be our final full slate of 2014. Here's a preview of the agendas on tap:

Community and Economic Development Committee, Monday, 5 pm

It's time once again for council to look at requests for funding via the federally-backed Community Development Block Grant program, and the CEDC committee will take a big step in that process when they meet on Monday.

Our anticipated federal funding for the CDBG program for 2015 is $500,000, and of that $317,000 is divided among the city's Homeowner Rehabilitation Loan Program, Neighborhood Services Program, Fair Housing Services, the Appleton Housing Authority and administrative costs. That leaves $183,000 to be divided among non-governmental organizations that apply for funds as community partners.

A six-member panel recently met to review grant applications and produce a recommendation for the allocation of the remaining funds. Each member was asked to review the requests and produce their own recommendation, then the group came together to compare notes and combine their findings into one final allocation. Here are their results:
  • Greater Fox Cities Area Habitat for Humanity would receive $70,000 of the $96,000 they requested (73%) for rehabilitation of four properties.
  • Housing Partnership of the Fox Cities would receive $31,000 of their requested $31,200 (99%) to rehab and repair three units and the parking area at the Wire Works Apartments.
  • Harbor House would receive $23,000 of their requested $25,000 (92%) to help fund support counseling and advocacy staff positions.
  • STEP Industries would receive $20,000 of their requested $30,000 (67%) to help fund staff positions, support program participants and support other programs.
  • Fox Valley Warming Shelter would receive the $15,000 they requested (100%) to help fund staff positions.
  • Emergency Shelter of the Fox Valley would receive $14,000 of the $15,000 (93%) they requested to support a House Supervisor position and pay for utility costs.
  • Rebuilding Together Fox Valley would receive $10,000 of the $25,000 (40%) they requested for modifications to 12 households to increase accessibility, repair roofs or replace windows.
All told the panel was tasked with allocating $183,000 in funds over $237,200 in requests, and HUD regulations prohibit more than $75,000 from being spent on "public service activities." 

The committee will have the opportunity to amend or approve these recommendations before passing them along to council for final approval next week.

In addition, there is an information item on this agenda regarding the proposed Exhibition Center. Council elected to hold its action item regarding a land purchase for the project last Wednesday, and will take that item up again when we meet in our regularly scheduled session on Wednesday, December 17.

Finance Committee, Wednesday, 4:30 pm

Wednesday will be a busy day for the Finance Committee, which has a public appearance, seven action items and ten information items on a packed agenda. The action item I suspect many readers will find most interesting is also the first one on the agenda: A request to approve a contract with Vision Internet to redesign and rebuild the Appleton.org website.

The city's current website was built in 2009 and 2010 and is obselete in many ways. The current website is unable to offer many of the features users have come to expect from municipal websites, has been a challenge to upgrade over the years and needs to be built on a platform that allows us to do more with it internally. The staff recommendation in this case is to contract with Vision Internet, a company that has previously produced more than 600 municipal sites for other communities. The contract calls for $54,465 to be spent on the rebuild and budgets $5,535 for contingencies that may arise during the project.

It's very disappointing to have to spend money to replace a website just a few years after completing the previous one, but in the digital age our city website is one of the primary public faces of our community. This rebuild is necessary, but it also needs to come with a better plan to keep the site fresh moving forward so we're not doing this every five years in perpetuity.

Safety & Licensing Committee, Thursday, 5 pm

The Safety & Licensing Committee also has a busy agenda for Thursday, with 20 action items and several information items that could merit extended discussion.

One of those action items is a request to approve a stipulation negotiated to be added to the liquor license of La Michoacana Bar & Grill on College Avenue. This facility currently houses both the aforementioned restaurant in addition to Antro Nightclub, which made headlines recently due to a massive brawl in the establishment that led to a stabbing. This and multiple other incidents and concerns led to the city negotiating a deal with the business and property owners to allow the restaurant to continue to operate, if the nightclub operations immediately cease. The owners agreed to this arrangement to avoid a possible revocation of their liquor license for both businesses.

Another item on Thursday's agenda as an information item is a review of the Police Department's use of social media. This issue has been percolating now for quite some time: Here's a Post Crescent story where I was quoted on the matter back in early October.

There's absolutely no doubt that social media, when used correctly, can be a great tool to disseminate information and make our community safer. There's also a tremendous risk, however, that allowing and engaging in public debates in comments on Facebook leads to inappropriate content on the site and impacts suspects' right to a fair trial. The department's page is monitored for inappropriate activity, but performing that monitoring also occupies a fair amount of officers' valuable time.

We need to find a way to do better here. Social media is a tremendous resource that isn't going away anytime soon, but we need to be certain we're using it in an efficient way and not allowing others to abuse it.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Monday, December 1, 2014

What you may not know: Week of December 1

Most of the Appleton Common Council's committee meetings were canceled last week due to Thanksgiving, but what would otherwise have been a pretty quiet scheduled council meeting on Wednesday night could now have one big headline:

Exhibition Center land purchase

Negotiations and discussions continue regarding a proposal to build an Exhibition Center adjacent to the Radisson Paper Valley hotel downtown, and those plans could take a big step forward on Wednesday night as council will be asked to approve an agreement to purchase the site of the proposed facility from Outagamie County.

This item is one step in the process and, even if approved, a lot of hurdles remain for the project. No work could begin until or unless the city reaches an agreement with the hotel's new owners (it's scheduled to go up for auction on Wednesday) on a lease for the space.

I've been away for several days on a family matter and haven't had a chance to review all of the memos and paperwork we've received on Wednesday's action item, so I'm not ready to make any definitive statement on whether or not I support moving forward this way. I will say, however, that I continue to have grave concerns about the risk the city is taking if we end up owning this building.

Organizational meeting

Before Wednesday's regularly scheduled meeting the council will come together for an organizational meeting to discuss our council rules and make any needed changes to our operations going forward. Any alderperson can propose a rule change on the floor at this meeting, but several of my colleagues and I have pre-submitted two proposals for consideration.

The first deals with our procedure regarding action items that are referred back to their committee of jurisdiction for further review. Frequently when we consider controversial or high profile items an alderperson elects to send the item back to committee for a second look before council takes an official action. Any single alderperson can request an item be referred back at council.

This creates a situation, however, where we sometimes waste a significant amount of our constituents' time. It's not unusual for high profile items to draw a significant number of public speakers who take time out of their schedules to come address us and are disappointed when no official action is taken and they're asked to come back later. Four of us have co-submitted a resolution calling for this process to change in the following ways:
  1. If an alderperson wishes to use their automatic refer-back to send an item back to its committee of jurisdiction, they must announce that intention by the end of the day on the Monday preceding a council meeting.
  2. If an alderperson wishes to refer an item back on the council floor, they must make a motion to do so and council must vote to approve that motion.
The first clause above will hopefully allow alderpersons to reach out to potentially interested constituents to alert them of the change and save them the time of coming to a meeting for a vote that won't happen. The second clause will still allow for refer backs to be used if needed, but raises the bar for doing so. I think this resolution gives us an opportunity to be more respectful of the time of everyone involved.

Our second resolution, co-submitted by five of us, is in regard to voting procedure. State statute requires that any action item must receive votes from a majority of the council to pass, which in our case is eight votes from our 15 members. We're still required to have eight votes to pass an item, however, even if all 15 members are not present.

This creates a couple of fairness challenges, including one that has come up a couple of times during my tenure on the council. We had a vote earlier this year where the action item failed to pass largely because a couple of council members were absent. Seven alderpersons voted to approve the item and six voted to deny, so the item failed despite a majority of the council neither approving nor denying the item.

Our proposed rule change allows council to delay action in cases like this to allow the body to act more definitively at a later date. Any item that does not receive a majority vote to either approve or deny would be held until our next meeting, with the hope that a larger attendance will allow council to make a clear decision to approve or deny.

Update on an item from last week:

In my post a week ago I mentioned a resolution I had proposed calling for the city to review its zoning code regarding lights on gas station canopies. That item passed unanimously at the City Plan Commission last Monday and will appear before the council on Wednesday.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Monday, November 24, 2014

What you may not know: Week of November 24

As you might expect, this is an abbreviated week for the Appleton Common Council as we prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday and Tuesday night's parade. We do have some business to attend to on Monday night, however, before we go:

City Plan Commission, Monday, 4 pm

As you may have seen in Monday's Post Crescent, on Monday afternoon the City Plan Commission will review a proposal to rezone the former site of the Woolen Mills on the riverfront into a new apartment complex. The renovated facility is expected to house 60 apartments, and would be the fourth major residential project on the riverfront in recent years.

Creating a new vision for and redeveloping vacant sites is one of the critical challenges involved in maintaining a vibrant community, and being able to do so while also retaining some of the historic value of the existing structure is an added bonus. Projects like this sometimes create infrastructure challenges that we'll have to work through, but I'm glad to see progress being made to enhance our riverfront.

At this meeting the commission will also hear a resolution I submitted last week asking the commission and council to review and possibly revise zoning code language regarding lighting on canopies over gas pumps. This resolution stems from a recent ruling by the Board of Zoning Appeals that found our existing ordinances to be somewhat unclear on this issue. The resolution is simply a call for a review, so any final action on this matter will happen at a later date.

Human Resources Committee, Monday, 5:15 pm

Once the City Plan Commission has wrapped up, the Human Resources Committee will come together to consider several organizational shifts within the city, including the following:

  • Restructuring the organizational layout of the Parks, Recreation and Facilities Department to eliminate our Parks Planner/Liaison position when the employee retires and create a Deputy Director position.
  • Reclassify two seasonal positions in our Recreation division as .67 FTE (full time equivalent) to better reflect the actual workload of these positions and allow them to receive the benefits that come with their work level.
  • Reorganizing the supervisor structure at the Police Department to allow an employee that works primarily with handling electronic evidence to be supervised by the Lieutenant in charge of investigations.
  • Eliminating an Operations Supervisor and part-time bus operator position at Valley Transit and replacing it with two road supervisors to respond to concerns in a more efficient fashion.
None of these four changes are likely to have any financial impact (no impact is budgeted at this point), but the four changes allow city departments to be better prepared for unforeseen circumstances in the future, appropriately compensate and classify existing employees and provide a higher level of service on a more responsive timeframe. As an alderman I'm happy to see departments constantly striving to make internal improvements that will enhance operations going forward.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Monday, November 10, 2014

What you may not know: Week of November 10

This would normally be a full committee week for the Appleton Common Council, but much of that work will be overshadowed or rescheduled this week as the council wraps up the 2015 budget process. The full council will meet on Wednesday night at 6 pm to make final amendments before approving the end result.

A small handful of amendments were presented and passed at Budget Saturday:
  • Eliminating $10,000 budgeted to be contributed to the Fox Cities Regional Partnership, a local economic development organization.
  • Adding $8500 for the stormwater utility (an enterprise fund separate from the general budget) to study the geological and technical feasibility of a proposed stormwater project at Lions Park.
In addition to those amendments, I have pre-submitted the following proposals for consideration on Wednesday:

Sharing funding responsibility for the acquisition of a new police dog for our K9 program. In the past the City has asked for donations to raise money for the purchase and training of new K9 officers for the Police Department. This year's budget, as currently presented, includes $18,000 for the acquisition and training of a new dog. 

At Budget Saturday Mayor Hanna stated that the K9 units have become critical to the department's work, so he preferred to budget for them outright as opposed to seeking donations. My proposal would take us a step in that direction by maintaining funding for training and recertification of K9 units but removing funding for the acqusition of a dog and continuing to fundraise for that purpose. The cost savings of this amendment would be $9000.

Removing rent paid to Reid Golf Course for winter activities. As many of you likely know, the Parks and Recreation Department operates several winter programs at Reid Golf Course, including cross country skiing. The city currently pays rent to the golf course (an enterprise fund separate from the general fund) for the ability to use the facility and clubhouse during the winter. 

The golf course currently owes the city $165,000 as part of an interest-free general fund advance given to the course in 2002. The fund is scheduled to repay this money at a rate of $5000 per year for the next five years before halting payments for five years from 2020-24 and making two payments totaling $140,000 in 2025 and 2026.

I don't think it's right for the city to be paying rent to the golf course when the course still owes the city so much money on a 24-year interest-free loan. As such, I've submitted an amendment calling for the city to stop paying rent at Reid, instead applying the revenue that would have gone to the course to the course's debt. The cost savings of this amendment would be $8500 per year until the debt is repaid.

Restructuring street lighting improvements. The city's Capital Improvement Plan currently calls for $59,907 to be spent each of the next eight years upgrading city-owned decorative street lighting to LED fixtures. The upgrades will reduce energy usage on the lights, which reduces their operating cost and is also better for the environment.

As we enter some years of potentially increased borrowing, however, I think it makes sense to slow this project down a bit instead of tacking it on to our growing debt load. I've proposed an amendment that would change this project from every year for eight years to alternating over the next 16 years. Stretching this project out would remove nearly $120,000 from our borrowing combined in 2016 and 2018.

Eliminating proposed tennis courts at Highview Park. The Parks and Recreation Department's Capital Improvements Plan calls for the construction of new tennis courts at Highview Park on the city's north side in 2015. If you're not familiar with Highview Park, it's north of Highway 41 and in the neighborhood between Meade and Richmond Streets.

These courts would fulfill a "service area need," as the city has not owned any courts in this area since removing facilities at Memorial Park several years ago. This need is currently filled by an agreement allowing members of the public to use courts at Fox Valley Lutheran High School, which is about a mile and a half away from the park.

Highview Park is tucked away in a relatively new residential neighborhood, and isn't visible from any major street. Of the four streets that border the park, only one even connects to a major street. FVL, on the other hand, is on the corner of a county highway (JJ) and Meade Street, and is clearly visible to a lot of passing traffic.

I think both the city and the sport of tennis are better served by continuing to partner with FVL to provide access to tennis courts in an easy to locate, highly visible space than by constructing new courts that many of our constituents won't even know are there. I proposed an amendment to eliminate the plan to construct courts, which would remove $120,000 from this year's proposed borrowing.

Removing funding for re-purchase of industrial park lots. The 2014 budget contained $200,000 to be used for the repurchase of vacant industrial park lots that have been purchased by developers but not built. The money was not used but appears in the budget again for next year. Under the covenants of the park, purchasers have one year to begin work on their properties, and the city has the right to reacquire their lots if they wait too long.

A memo before the Community and Economic Development Committee in March of this year showed the following:
  • There were nine remaining purchased but undeveloped lots in the park. (A project has since begun on one of them, so eight remain). All of them have an explanation for their current development delays.
  • $200,000 would not be an adequate amount of money to repurchase some of those lots.
  • In addition, some of the lots in question had been re-sold without the city being given its right of first refusal, and it's unclear if we still have the right to repurchase them from their second owner.
Given these facts, I've proposed an amendment to remove this expenditure from the budget and remove $200,000 from our proposed borrowing.

If all five of these amendments pass, they would combine to remove $51,500 in general fund spending and $439,814 in city borrowing over the next five years. 

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

What you may not know: Week of November 5

The 2015 budget process for the City of Appleton continues this week with a couple of key milestones in the process.

Budget public hearing, Wednesday, 6 p.m.

As I mentioned in last week's update, the Finance Committee held its annual special all-day meeting on Saturday to conduct the first full public review of the budget and make its first round of amendments. Changes made on Saturday include the following:

  • Eliminating $10,000 budgeted to be contributed to the Fox Cities Regional Partnership, a local economic development organization.
  • Adding $8500 for the stormwater utility (an enterprise fund separate from the general budget) to study the geological and technical feasibility of a proposed stormwater project at Lions Park.
The next step comes on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. when the full council will meet early for a public hearing on the budget. No official action will be taken on the budget on Wednesday night, but this is an opportunity for the public to weigh in on 2015's proposals before a final vote is taken next week.

The final step in the process is a special council meeting for budget adoption on Wednesday, November 12. It's likely we'll have another robust round of amendments offered before reaching our final decision that night.

Full council meeting, Wednesday, 7 p.m.

At 7 p.m. or following the conclusion of the public hearing, whichever comes later, the full council will meet in regularly-scheduled session to take up non-budget related business. The two most notable items on the agenda are things I discussed last week:
  • Last Wednesday the Transit Commission met in special session to unanimously approve a proposed fare increase for Valley Transit for 2015. The most notable changes are a cash fare increase from $1.80 to $2 per ride, a price increase from $56 to $60 for a 30-day pass and the creation of a $.75 youth fare. 
  • Also last Wednesday the Finance Committee voted 4-1 to recommend denial of a resolution calling for the proposed new Appleton Public Library to be sent to an advisory referendum. 
The council will likely take a final vote on both items at this meeting.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

What you may not know: Week of October 27

October is a five-Wednesday month, so this would typically be an off week for the Appleton Common Council. Due to one postponement and a couple of special meetings, however, it's one of our busiest weeks of the year. Here's what's on my calendar:

Fox Cities Transit Commission, Wednesday, 3 pm

The Transit Commission will meet in special session on Wednesday to approve Valley Transit's 2015 budget, which includes a fare increase for most fixed route riders for the first time since 2009. The most notable fare changes are as follows:

  • The regular cash fare will rise from $1.80 to $2.00 per trip.
  • A ten-ride ticket will go up from $15 to $17.
  • 30-day passes will go up from $56 to $60.
  • For the first time a 30-day freedom pass will be offered for children and priced at $22.
  • A youth fare will also be created at $.75, eliminating the need for children to pay the full cash fare.
Raising prices for services that many low-income users depend on is never an easy decision, but after five years of flat fares it's time to make a small increase. The rule of thumb for transit is that fares cover somewhere between 15-20% of the total operating cost, and Valley Transit has been operating at the low end of that spectrum for multiple years now. 

Incidentally, moving the cash fare from $1.80 to $2 could also have a noticeable impact on the buses' on-time performance as it will significantly reduce passengers' need to get change cards for $.20. Improving on-time performance is a major goal for the service going forward.

Finance Committee, Wednesday, 4:30 pm

The Finance Committee was unable to meet at its normally scheduled time last week, so we'll meet on Wednesday to take on a very significant agenda. The headline from the meeting is likely to be the committee recommendation on a resolution calling for a referendum on the proposed new Appleton Public Library.

The current proposal for the library calls for the city to borrow $30 million over a three-year span to finance the site acquisition, site preparation and construction of a new facility, a figure that would be repaid over 22 years (each individual borrow would be repaid over 20 years). That averages out to less than $1.4 million in principal repayment per year, plus our historically-low municipal interest rate, spread over the entire city tax base. An additional $7 million is expected to come from private sources.

The need for the library to expand to a new, larger, updated facility is clearly laid out in the very first bullet point on this APL150 FAQ page. Library usage and circulation has nearly tripled since the current facility opened in 1981, and the use of technology has gone from an afterthought to a primary service. Given that need, the decision on whether or not to go to referendum hinges on three questions:
  1. Do we feel that the estimated property tax impact of this project is significant enough to require public confirmation? 
  2. If we elect not to build a new library at this time, will there ever be a better opportunity?
  3. Would a decision to delay this project until a referendum can be held (likely February or April of 2015) have an unwarranted negative impact on both the project and our partners in making it happen?
In my opinion, the answers to those questions are likely no, no and yes. We're still working on the specific numbers for property tax impact, but it appears likely the annual payments will be relatively low and spread out over both an extended period of time and the entirety of our tax base, so individual property tax changes will be small. 

Furthermore, our relatively low municipal debt (easily the smallest per capita of any community in our size group statewide) and track record for solid financial practices put us in a position to receive a very favorable interest rate for this project. Municipal bond interest rates are already at a near rock-bottom level, and we'll be among the most desirable in that group. Simply put, if we wait on this project it's likely to get significantly more expensive down the road.

Finally, delaying this project would create a significant issue for everyone involved. Both current owners of the properties likely to be used for this project, the church and Michiel's, have been operating with this potential development hanging over their head for some time now. Opting to go to referendum would leave them to face that uncertainty for six more months. That's particularly challenging when it comes to businesses based on events, who would be unable to book for the future but would have to attempt to continue to operate. Delays could also have a strong negative impact on the city's ability to hire contractors and architects mid-year to keep the project on schedule for completion and avoid costly overruns.

It's never easy to say an issue shouldn't go before the voters and I know this decision won't be popular with everyone, but I think it's time to move forward with this project.

Finance Committee (again), Saturday, 8 am

Last but certainly not least, the 2015 budget process takes a significant step forward on Saturday when the Finance Committee (with the remainder of the council also likely to be in attendance) meets for a full day to review and make our committee's recommendation on the full document. 

The library is, of course, likely to be one of the primary topics of discussion at this meeting but every department will be reviewed and amendments to the Mayor's proposals will be considered. It's a very long day but a necessary step in our efforts to do the most we can with the resources we have available.

After Saturday, the full budget will be presented and open for discussion at a public hearing before our November 5 council meeting and will be amended and adopted at our November 12 meeting.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Monday, October 13, 2014

What you may not know: MRAP edition

Apologies for missing a week last week: Our committee week agendas largely featured items that I didn't expect to have wide appeal, items I had discussed previously or items I knew I'd get a chance to discuss again later. I don't take weeks off from this blog often, but I didn't feel like I had much to share last week that would have been a valuable use of your time or mine.

As you might expect following a quiet committee week, we have a relatively quiet agenda for Wednesday night's regularly scheduled council meeting. I do have some new information to share, however, about an item we've discussed before:

MRAP Update

On September 17 two alderpersons submitted a resolution calling for the city to review several issues related to the Appleton Police Department's new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle.

The original resolution called for four actions:
  1. A budgetary review of the costs involved in keeping, outfitting and preparing officers to use the MRAP vehicle.
  2. A staff review of options for returning, selling or disposing of the vehicle.
  3. A review of the process of acquiring such vehicles or military surplus items in the future.
  4. A review of processes involving active shooters that could be conducted without using "military vehicles."
At the Safety & Licensing Committee's first meeting to discuss this resolution, we removed items 2 and 4 after an extended debate. The remaining resolution was referred back to committee at our October 1 council meeting, and was discussed again at that level last Thursday. The committee's recommendation remains the same, but I think the second conversation on the issue was very illuminating.

First of all, at that second meeting we had our first opportunity to hear the police department's policy on when the MRAP could be used. You can hear it for yourself at approximately 37:30 in the meeting video, but I'll also do my best to transcribe it here:

The primary utilization of the rescue vehicle is:

A) As a rescue vehicle for the evacuation of officers and our citizens from an unsafe environment
B) To safely insert a team, SWAT or a team of patrol officers or deputies into an otherwise unsafe environment
C) The rescue vehicle may be staged in a nearby area on incidents where the uses listed above could be reasonably anticipated, and
D) Absent reasons identified above, the rescue vehicle is not intended for use in a crowd-control environment.

At this point I think it's important to note that altering tactical policies isn't something we as a council can do. Those decisions fall under the jurisdiction of the Police & Fire Commission, not the Common Council. However, I think having this opportunity to review that policy addressed some of the concerns regarding the MRAP vehicle. 

Two weeks ago I wrote, "I'm in favor of a strong policy regarding when it (the MRAP) can or cannot be used. I don't want to see the MRAP in parades or see it used for crowd control or non-emergency purposes, but if the unthinkable happens and we need it, I want our officers to have access to it." The policy detailed above satisfies my concerns.

I suspect we'll still hear some debate on this issue on Wednesday night and perhaps we'll get the opportunity to discuss more proposed amendments, but as things stand right now I'm comfortable with the situation in play.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

What you may not know: Week of September 29

Apologies for the belated post, but the Appleton Common Council will meet on Wednesday at 7 pm and the agenda includes three items we've discussed in this space before. Here are the updates:

Painted sign resolution

At last week's City Plan Commission we voted 7-0 to recommend approval of a staff recommendation to modify the city's ordinances regarding signs painted on the sides of buildings. The changes proposed would allow a percentage of a building on commercial property to feature a painted sign.

We've been through this discussion multiple times now and it represents a pretty significant challenge: We either need to allow all painted signs below a certain set of dimensions, allow no painted signs, or allow some signs and try to establish how we're going to define what is and is not allowed. The Commission recommended the first of those three options, and I think that's the right decision.

Lions Park repurposing

At a joint meeting last week the Utilities and Parks & Recreation Committees both voted unanimously to recommend approval of a two-year delay on a proposed stormwater project at Lions Park on the city's south side. An area near the park experienced significant flooding twice in a decade during what's known as "100-year" rain events during the 2000's, leading the city to take some steps and consider more to mitigate stormwater risk in this area.

Current and recently concluded projects at Appleton East High School are expected to reduce potential flooding by better than 40%, and it appears we're going to stop there for a while and allow the Stormwater Utility to focus on other projects.

This one will almost certainly come up again at some point in the future, but the committees that voted to recommend a two-delay include nine of the 15 council members. As such, their recommendation should pass easily at council.

Military surplus vehicles

Last week the Safety & Licensing Committee voted 4-1 to approve an amended version of a resolution submitted by two alderpersons calling for the city to review the process and expenses involved with acquiring and training officers to use military surplus vehicles like the city's Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle we recently received through the federal 1033 program.

The original resolution called for four actions:

  1. A budgetary review of the costs involved in keeping, outfitting and preparing officers to use the MRAP vehicle.
  2. A staff review of options for returning, selling or disposing of the vehicle.
  3. A review of the process of acquiring such vehicles or military surplus items in the future.
  4. A review of processes involving active shooters that could be conducted without using "military vehicles."
The amended version of the resolution recommended items #1 and 3 for approval but removed items #2 and 4 from the discussion. I voted in favor of that amendment and the resolution as amended.

There's a tough balance to find here between people who are concerned regarding the "militarization" of the police and the desire to have the best tools available to be used in emergency situations. I think having the vehicle (which the city shares with Outagamie County, by the way) will help to keep our officers and civilians safe in the hopefully rare event that it's needed. If anything, I'm in favor of a strong policy regarding when it can or cannot be used. I don't want to see the MRAP in parades or see it used for crowd control or non-emergency purposes, but if the unthinkable happens and we need it, I want our officers to have access to it.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Monday, September 22, 2014

What you may not know: Week of September 22

It's a busy committee week for the Appleton Common Council, with three items on our agendas that are certain to draw some attention:

City Plan Commission, Monday, 4 pm

Back in July five alderpersons submitted a resolution calling for the city to review its policy on painted signs and murals. The review was prompted by at least one painted sign within the city that is not in compliance with our current ordinances and will have to be removed unless some action is taken.

Council eventually approved the resolution calling for a review, and on August 25 the City Plan Commission received a first draft of a staff proposal to modify the ordinance. The commission opted to refer the matter to staff again for further clarification, and today we'll get our first chance to review their new draft.

Allowing painted signs like the one on the Wilmar building seems like a no-brainer, but allowing painted signs at all opens the door for a variety of interesting "gray area" situations. If we allow some painted signs then we have to either decide to allow all signs or establish criteria for how the city will decide what signs aren't allowed. So we run the risk of either allowing art some people may find offensive or having to define what is or isn't art. Both possibilities come with some challenges, so I suspect we'll have an interesting conversation.

Joint meeting of the Utilities and Parks and Recreation Committees, Wednesday, 5:30 pm

A big part of the city's long-term stormwater plan will be up for debate Wednesday night when two committees come together to discuss the future of Lions Park.

As you may know, the city is engaged in a multi-year, multi-phase effort to reduce flooding and stormwater issues near Theodore Street on the city's southeast side. A pair of "100-year" flooding events in a relatively short period of time led to major issues in this neighborhood and sparked some movement to eliminate or alleviate the risk in the future.

The city is currently wrapping up one phase of that project, which involved installation of underground stormwater tanks under the parking lot at East High School. The next phase could involve the repurposing of Lions Park into a "dry pond," and it could happen as soon as 2020.

The current and completed projects at East would alleviate roughly 41% of the flooding experienced in a 100-year event in the areas mentioned above. Repurposing Lions Park as a dry pond would remove another 43% of the issue, but using it for that purpose would eliminate much of the facility's current use. The park currently contains a baseball field and playground equipment, and retaining the baseball field at a redesigned facility likely would not be feasible. The dry pond would not have water in it except during flooding events, however, so some recreational uses like a soccer field or volleyball courts could be added for dry times. In addition, the repurposed park could be a candidate to have an ice rink installed during the winter.

This project currently falls outside of the five-year plan, and at this meeting members of the two committees will be asked to consider how they'd like to proceed. The committee could decide to go forward with the project and ask for it to happen in 2020, could recommend abandoning the project entirely or could back-burner it for now and allow the city to work on stormwater issues elsewhere.

Safety and Licensing, Thursday, 5 pm

Like many cities around the country, Appleton has recently taken possession of a mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) surplus military vehicle through the federal 1033 program. That program has come under fire in light of recent events in other communities, though, and last week at our full council meeting two alderpersons submitted a resolution calling for council to review our policy on accepting surplus items, review the expenses that come with maintaining and preparing officers to use the MRAP vehicle and look at possibly returning or disposing of it. Nick Penzenstadler of the Post Crescent has more on the resolution.

The decision to accept equipment like the MRAP is a challenging one. I'm certainly aware of concerns regarding the "militarization" of police forces around the country, but it would also be a tremendous shame if the city ever faced a situation where members of the public and/or our officers could have kept safer via the use of free equipment we elected to return.

I'm not sure where we'll end up coming down on this issue, but I think the opportunity to have the conversation is a good thing.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Monday, September 15, 2014

What you may not know: Week of September 15

It's a busy week for the Appleton Common Council and for me personally, so I hope you'll forgive me for skipping the chit-chat and moving straight to this week's items of interest:

Library Board, Tuesday, 4:30 pm

A possible new home for the Appleton Public Library has been in the news a lot lately and the project will take another step forward on Tuesday as we learn one more piece of the budgetary puzzle. As part of her regularly scheduled report, Friends Executive Director Jan Quinlan is expected to announce the results of their study to determine how much of a new facility's construction cost we can expect to receive through private donations. Once we have that number, we'll know the city's likely share.

$42 million has been a number frequently thrown around as the construction cost of a new library, but that figure is somewhat misleading as it includes the costs for spaces built to be used by the Outagamie Waupaca Library System (OWLS) and our own Parks and Recreation Department. The library's actual share of the construction cost is less at $36.6 million, and any private donations will continue to lower that figure.

As I said on the council floor several weeks ago, any library project will need to be a public-private partnership to succeed. I look forward to hearing what the Friends group has learned regarding the generosity of our community.

Common Council Workshop, Wednesday, 6 pm

Before Wednesday's scheduled council meeting we'll have a one-hour workshop to work through many of the details and updates regarding a proposal to construct an exhibition center downtown. This project has been on our radar screens for quite some time but may be nearing a final decision soon.

The exhibition center proposal has undergone a variety of changes over half a decade of consideration, the most notable being a decrease in the potential economic impact and the likely reality that the city will have to own the facility if it is constructed. The latter note is a sticking point for me, as owning the facility would remove it from the tax rolls and could leave in a position where a less-than-expected result would have to be subsidized with tax dollars.

I've heard a fair amount from constituents and business owners both strongly in favor of and opposed to this project moving forward. For now, I'm waiting to see the full picture before making a final decision.

Common Council, Wednesday, 7 pm

Finally, we have our regularly scheduled council meeting. In my opinion, the most notable items on our agenda this week are two I discussed in last week's update:

  • Last week the Human Resources Committee voted 4-1 to recommend approval of a 2% pay raise for members of the common council starting in April of 2016. Alderpersons have not received a raise since 2009 and currently make $5,805/year, so this raise amounts to about $116 per alderperson per year or about $1750 per year from the city budget. Two percent is equal to the increase in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index from July of 2013 to July of 2014, so this increase allows us to keep up with inflation after seven years of falling behind.
  • Also last week, the Parks and Recreation Committee voted 3-1 to approve a proposal to self-operate the clubhouse at Reid Golf Course for 2015. As I outlined last week, retaining some of the revenue that currently goes to a clubhouse contractor is the course's best opportunity to remain financially viable for the long term.
You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Monday, September 8, 2014

What you may not know: Week of September 8

The Appleton Common Council has a full schedule of committee meetings this week, highlighted by two items that have come up before:

Human Resources, Monday, 6 pm

A few weeks ago the Human Resources Committee elected to hold an item dealing with a potential future pay raise for the Appleton Common Council. The council cannot vote on its own pay raises, so any decision made on this issue will not take effect until April of 2016 when all alderpersons' current terms have elapsed.

When this topic was last discussed a month ago, I was one of multiple alderpersons suggesting that our system of determining future pay raises is flawed and needs improvement. Currently, we vote on a potential future pay raise every year and typically decide on a zero increase. Alderpersons received a 3% pay raise in 2003 and another 3% in 2009. By the time any action we take goes into effect in 2016 it will have been seven years since the last salary increase.

I've been called out a handful of times for speaking in favor of changing this system, so let me make this perfectly clear: This debate isn't about the money for me. Alderpersons currently make $5,805 per year, which is roughly what we'd make if we worked 15 hours/week at minimum wage. If we were to receive a 3% pay raise in 2016 and I'm still in office when it comes around, my pay raise from a 3% increase would be $174 per year. This issue is about more than (potentially) getting less than $200 two years from now.

What this is about, for me at least, is finding a sustainable way to manage this issue that will be less arbitrary than raising salary by an accepted percentage because "it's been a while." That's not a responsible financial practice. We can do better.

Parks and Recreation, Wednesday, 6 pm

Two weeks ago the Parks and Recreation Committee discussed for the first time a proposal to change the way the city operates Reid Golf Course. For years now the city has contracted out operation of the course, but staff has asked us to consider ending the contract and bringing the facility's management back in-house for the 2015 season.

Currently,  the golf course (an enterprise fund of the city) receives 100% of greens fees for rounds played at the course, but the contractor keeps all revenue from cart rentals, the practice range, pro shop and concessions. This arrangement is the only active one of its kind in the state and has left the course short on revenue and operating capital. The course currently owes over $1 million from past projects, is only paying the interest on those loans and cannot afford to make any further improvements.

For the course to continue to survive without having to be subsidized by property tax dollars the city needs to retain more revenue from its operations. This is likely to be a controversial decision among patrons of the course, but from an economic perspective it's clearly time to make a change.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

What you may not know: Week of September 1

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and is back to work refreshed this week. The Appleton Common Council will get back to work on Wednesday with our regularly scheduled full council meeting. Here are some of the highlights:

Library

The council will come together a little early this week, meeting at 6 pm on Wednesday for a special workshop on the library. No official action will be taken on the library as part of this meeting, but it's another opportunity for my colleagues and I and members of the general public to hear more about the process that has led us to this point and the next steps ahead.

One of the challenges of this process at this point is educating members of the public who did not participate in the multiple years of meetings and studies that have led us to this juncture. Hopefully this presentation will give us another opportunity to help people understand why it's important we continue to work towards a new facility.

Wheel Tax

Once we get to the actual meeting, the big story is likely to be the council's vote on a Finance Committee recommendation to implement a $20/vehicle "wheel tax" to replace revenue lost when the city would eliminate its longstanding special assessment policy for street reconstruction. The wheel tax resolution was approved by a 4-1 vote at committee on August 13, was referred back to committee at our August 20 council meeting and was reaffirmed by a 4-1 vote at the committee level again on August 27.

I've written about the wheel tax proposal on several occasions, including devoting my entire post to answering frequently asked questions about it two weeks ago. It's not a perfect system but it's markedly better than the special assessment system it will replace if approved. And while I recognize that creating a new tax or fee is never popular, I hope everyone will recognize that the city is simply not in a position to give up special assessment revenue without replacing it in some way.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Monday, August 25, 2014

What you may not know: Week of August 25

It's a busy committee week for the Appleton Common Council and two of the week's highlights happen later today (Monday), so let's get right to it:

City Plan Commission, Monday, 4 pm

Several weeks ago the Plan Commission and the common council approved a resolution calling for the city to review its policy on painted signs and murals. Today at 4 pm the Plan Commission will get our first opportunity to discuss the proposed changes.

Looking through the memo and the proposed changes, a couple of noteworthy items stick out to me:

  1. Having the word "mural" defined as part of the ordinance and clearly stating that murals are not signs, and as such are not regulated under the city's painted sign policy could open the door for a variety of new art to pop up around the city.
  2. Separating painted signs and murals (and exempting "ghost signs," historic signs from businesses that have since closed) should allow us to regulate and permit where we need to without this becoming a major issue.
City staff deserves a lot of credit here for working with us to see how other communities handle this issue. I'm looking forward to moving forward with this.

Library Building & Equipment Committee, Monday, 4:30 pm

Unfortunately, two of this week's most newsworthy meetings are likely to overlap as the public gets their first opportunity to see the architectural concepts for a possible new library at 4:30 on Monday. The common council voted on Wednesday to approve a resolution of necessity allowing the city to negotiate with the owners of two properties, Fox Banquets and Trinity Lutheran Church, to potentially make way for a new facility to be constructed in that space.

There's still a lot that needs to happen before we're ready to construct a new facility, but I'm excited to see things moving forward after five years of work to reach this point. It's time for us to come together and build the greatest library this city has ever known.

Finance Committee, Wednesday, 4:30 pm

Finally, if you've been following the news around the city you likely already know what's coming before the Finance Committee this week. Two weeks ago we voted 4-1 to recommend approval for a resolution calling for the city to implement a $20 per vehicle "wheel tax" to replace revenue the city currently collects via special assessments for street reconstruction. The resolution was referred back to committee, however, and we'll discuss it again on Wednesday.

I've written about this idea at length multiple times now. In fact, I dedicated last week's entire post to it. I continue to hear from constituents and others around the city that are strongly in favor or strongly opposed to this proposal. At the end of the day, though, I think asking our vehicle owners to make small, annual contributions to the city's ongoing upkeep of roads is a significantly better option than hitting property owners with an enormous bill at the time of reconstruction. 

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Wheel Tax FAQ

As you likely know if you've been reading this blog, the City of Appleton's Finance Committee has been working for most of the summer on a reevaluation of the city's policy regarding special assessments. For as long as anyone can remember the city has been passing along a portion of the cost to property owners when a new street or utilities are installed or the street or utility infrastructure is repaired near their property.

Rising construction costs and other factors, however, have led to those assessments becoming increasingly significant and challenging for many property owners. It's not unheard of for a street/utility project to result in over $10,000 in assessments for some properties. Even with the city's five-year payment option, that's simply not a cost some property owners can afford to take on all at once.

On Wednesday the Appleton Common Council will debate one alternative: a proposed $20-per-vehicle "wheel tax." The tax would apply to all cars weighing less than 8,000 pounds and would raise an estimated $1.7 million in annual revenue for the city. Over the last ten years the city has spent an average of around $5 million per year on road repairs, and of that amount $1.3 million per year has been recovered via special assessments.

Over the last few months we've heard a lot of questions about the wheel tax. Below I've attempted to answer some of the more frequent questions I've received.

Why do we need a new tax to pay for street repairs?

As I mentioned above, special assessments have brought in about $1.3 million in annual revenue on average over the last ten years. For perspective, in 2014 the city's total property tax levy was slightly under $38 million, meaning that eliminating special assessments and absorbing this revenue loss with property tax dollars would reduce the general fund by about 3.4%. That's simply not a funding cut the city can afford to absorb without reducing other services.

There seems to be a perception out there that the city can just "cut the fat" and find this money in the budget, but in reality it's not quite that simple. We've already had to cut dozens of staff positions in response to reductions in state aid and levy limitations in recent years, and the impact is still being felt around the city. We also have (per capita) very small police and fire departments and other city departments operating under significant limitations. There simply isn't room in the budget or in our city operations at this point to take on a cut of this magnitude. If we can't pass a wheel tax, it appears pretty certain that we'll need to continue special assessments.

Why can't we just raise property taxes to pay for this?

By state statute, the city of Appleton and all municipalities have a cap on our property tax levy. Raising more than that levy limit requires the voters' approval through a referendum. As such, we simply don't have the ability to decide to raise property taxes to pay for this. If we elect to eliminate special assessments, we have to find another way to recoup this revenue.

Towns, villages, cities or counties are allowed, however, to create a wheel tax as long as all of the revenue collected is used for "transportation related purposes." That's a pretty broad umbrella, but the proposal recommended for approval by the Finance Committee narrows the allowed uses of Appleton's proposed tax to street reconstruction.

Why $20?

As mentioned above, our average over the last ten years has been about $1.3 million collected via special assessments. The actual number fluctuates pretty significantly year-to-year, though, depending on that year's projects and the adjoining properties' ability to be assessed. In addition, construction costs tend to go up from year-to-year, so using the last ten years' cost as a prediction for future expenses will probably underestimate our needs a bit.

A $20 wheel tax is expected to raise around $1.7 million annually, as I mentioned above. Some years that may be more than enough to cover the lost revenue from special assessments, but in those years the extra money will go into a segregated fund to help cover the difference on years where assessments would have exceeded our wheel tax revenue.

What happens if there's extra money?

I'm answering this one again because it's part of an important distinction we made at the last Finance Committee meeting: This money will only be used for street repairs, and if there's excess beyond what is needed to cover lost special assessment revenue it will go into a separate fund to be used to replace special assessment revenue in future years when the cost would have exceeded $1.7 million. This isn't just a "cash grab" or another tool to use to pump extra money into the general fund - it's going to be specifically segregated to be used for its stated purpose.

Why only cars and trucks under 8,000 pounds and not bicycles, motorcycles and heavier vehicles?

Certainly, cars aren't the only vehicles that benefit from having well-maintained roads. However, state statute specifically defines the vehicles we are allowed to charge this fee. The statute includes only vehicles with automobile or truck registration (eliminating bikes and any other two-wheeled vehicles) at 8,000 pounds or less (excluding heavier vehicles).

While I agree that other vehicles have an impact on the condition of our roads, especially heavier vehicles, the statute clearly says that we cannot apply a wheel tax to them.

Will this eliminate assessments on all streets?

No. Early in this process the Finance Committee and Common Council approved a policy that will continue to special assess property owners in new subdivisions when their first permanent street is installed. For most of the 13th district that has happened relatively recently or will happen soon. If you move into a property that doesn't have a permanent street, you will still be assessed for the city hiring someone to construct a street to you.

Under this proposal, however, once that permanent street is installed it becomes the city's sole responsibility to reconstruct it when the time comes. This would be similar to our city policy regarding sidewalks: Property owners pay for the initial construction of a sidewalk, but once it's in the city repairs or replaces it as needed.

What about people who recently paid for their streets?

I understand that this is going to be challenging to accept for some, but the city is not in a financial position to refund past special assessments. As I mentioned above, our budgets are tight. Repaying past assessments or offering to exempt recently assessed properties from the wheel tax simply isn't feasible at this point.

Individually I've explained the situation to a few people with the following metaphor: Imagine for a moment we had everyone on a street come out and put their fingers on their curb, then someone walked by and stepped on them. Halfway down the block, we realize that this is an awful idea. The "fair" way to do it would be to step on everyone's fingers anyway, but that doesn't make it right. At the same time, we can't really undo what's already been done.

There's really no way to eliminate special assessments that's perfectly "fair" for all of the property owners that have paid them in the past. I know some people will be upset about having to pay for their street and a wheel tax, but I hope over time they'll come to understand that if we're going to make a change it has to start somewhere.

But I live on (street name) street and it's not due for reconstruction. Why should I have to pay for everyone's streets?

While you may only live in a building adjacent to one or two streets, odds are you drive on other streets too. Having all of the city streets maintained well is in every driver's best interest.

How can I weigh in on this?

The wheel tax proposal is on the agenda for the Wednesday, August 20, 7 pm meeting of Appleton's Common Council. The meeting will be held in the council chambers on the sixth floor of City Hall, at 100 N Appleton St. If you're attending the meeting and would like to address the council, please come early and sign in on the sheet at the back of the room.

If you're unable to come to the meeting but you'd like to contact an alderperson to share your opinion on this or any other matter, this page contains links that allow you to contact them individually and this page allows you to send an email to all of them.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Monday, August 11, 2014

What you may not know: Week of August 11

Before I start with my committee week update, I'd like to take a moment to remind everyone that primaries for the November election will be held on Tuesday, August 12. If you live in Appleton's 13th district, your polling place is Faith Lutheran Church at 3100 E Evergreen Drive. The polls will be open from 7 am-8 pm, so please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the candidates and go vote.

Our committees are off on Tuesday to give everyone time to head out to the polls, but we still have a very significant week of meetings planned. Here are some of the highlights:

Human Resources, Monday, 6 pm

One of the action items on Monday evening's agenda is a request for council to set Aldermanic salaries to take effect after the 2016 April elections. Council is not allowed to vote on our own pay raises, so when we consider our own salaries we delay action for two years, when every member of council's current term will have elapsed.

Currently, members of Appleton's Common Council make $5,805 per year. That rate hasn't increased since going up 3% in 2009, and has gone up just twice in the last 12 years. The combined $85,705 spent paying all 15 alderpersons represents about 0.2%, or two thousandths of the city's net tax levy in our most recent budget.

Our council positions are intended to be part-time, but doing this job well requires a pretty significant time commitment. In addition to council and committee meetings (which frequently tie up 4-5 evenings every two weeks), most alderpersons spend a fair amount of time on meeting prep, working with staff and doing research to help understand and evaluate potential council decisions, working with constituents to answer questions and resolve issues, attending various other events and more.

The challenge with setting our own salaries is that "0%" is the easy answer politically. With that said, if we do that again this year we'll go all the way through 2016, a total of seven years, between salary increases. I think a modest raise is a fair request, and I hope we'll consider it.

Furthermore, I think the system by which we approve potential raises is part of the problem. I'm hopeful we'll consider tying potential council raises to some kind of metric (a percentage of the city's total tax levy, for example), to give ourselves an easy point of reference to use when making this decision in the future.

Finance, Wednesday, 4:30 pm

Most of this week's headlines are likely to come from the Finance Committee meeting, where we have one topic that's been sent back and another longstanding item that might be close to wrapping up.

First, at our last committee meeting we voted unanimously to approve a resolution of necessity allowing the city to negotiate with Trinity Lutheran Church and the owners of Michiels to potentially purchase the site for the new home for the Appleton Public Library. The issue was referred back to committee at council, however, so we'll be taking it up again on Wednesday.

This is the first time the council has been asked to approve anything related to this site, as the work on determining the future of the library largely falls upon the Library Board of Trustees. That body, however, has done a remarkably thorough job of looking at the possibilities and scrutinizing every option for the future. I think it would be a tremendous mistake for us to turn away from all of the work they've done.

And, of course, the committee also continues to work on our review of the city's special assessment policies. This week we're down to the main event: Street reconstruction. One of the items on our agenda is a resolution calling for the city to implement a wheel tax to pay for street repairs, replacing special assessment revenue and allowing us to eliminate the street portion of that practice.

Last week the council voted 15-0 to eliminate special assessments for sanitary sewer mains but continue to assess for laterals, which connect individual properties to the mains. I suspect that our previous action may set a precedent for a similar outcome here, with street reconstruction becoming the city's sole responsibility but connections (aprons, in this case) remaining the responsibility of the homeowner.

I also hope we'll consider an alternative I raised several meetings ago: Continuing to special assess for streets, but capping a property's potential assessment at a percentage of their assessed value. This would hopefully allow us to continue to repair streets without major budgetary impact, but also allow us to avoid (for example) charging $10,000 for street reconstruction to a corner property with a $65,000 assessed value.

Assuming the committees take action on these items this week and don't opt to hold them, all three items will come as recommendations before the full council on Wednesday, August 20.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

What you may not know: Week of August 4

After a week off, the Appleton Common Council resumes our normal schedule this week with our first full council meeting of August on Wednesday. Our top stories this week are likely to be items I've discussed before, so here are some updates from my last post two weeks ago:

Murals

On Monday, July 21 the City Plan Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of a resolution calling for an immediate, temporary halt to the enforcement of our ordinance regarding painted signs and murals. The ordinance, as currently written, would call for some public art and advertising like the painting on the exterior of the Wilmar Chocolates building on Wisconsin Avenue to be painted over.

It's worth noting that this resolution is not a permanent solution to this issue. The resolution calls for a temporary halt to enforcement while the city reviews and potentially amends its policies. Those possible changes would come at a later date.

In the meantime, however, I suspect we'll pass this resolution and open the door for the review process.

Fire Trucks

During our last week of committee meetings the Central Equipment Agency Review Committee, Finance Committee and Safety & Licensing Committee all voted unanimously to recommend approval of a proposal calling for the Appleton Fire Department to purchase a new, in-stock fire truck from Pierce Manufacturing to replace our 100-foot platform truck, which is 14 years old and in need of major service.

Purchasing this truck comes at a cost, as the city will have to add an additional $200,000 to our 2014 borrowing package to cover the resulting shortfall in the existing truck's vehicle replacement fund. In the bigger picture, though, buying a new truck now represents both the best short and long-term decisions when combining issues of public safety and fiscal responsibility.

Library

On July 23 the Finance Committee voted unanimously to recommend approval of a "resolution of necessity" authorizing city staff to open negotiations to purchase the proposed site of a new library.

This resolution would authorize the city to pay for appraisals of both properties and begin negotiations with their owners regarding a possible agreement to purchase these spaces. Without these resolutions the city cannot proceed with the effort to build a library on these properties.

At the Finance Committee meeting we again received very strong assurances the city does not intend to condemn or otherwise force out these property owners. We intend to negotiate and make our best offer but we're prepared to move on to alternatives if the owners are unwilling to sell. This resolution is a necessity to move along with that process.

Special Assessments for Utilities

Also at our July 23 Finance Committee meeting we voted 4-1 to approve an amendment to the city's special assessment policy dealing with sanitary sewer reconstruction. Our current policy calls for homeowners to receive a special assessment for a portion of both the sewer main and the lateral extending to their property line. Our amendment would call for the city to continue to assess for 50% of the cost of the lateral, but removes the cost of the main and several related items from the special assessment.

This change could reduce the sanitary sewer utility portion of a homeowner's special assessment by roughly two thirds, and reduces their assessment obligation to only the part of the project that specifically benefits their property: The lateral connecting them to the sewer main.

Once the committee voted to make that amendment, we voted unanimously to send the amended policy on to council for approval.

Once we've reached a final decision on the utilities portion of the policy, we're expected to move on to discussing street reconstruction and a possible wheel tax at our next Finance Committee meeting on August 13. Street reconstruction and/or the wheel tax are not on Wednesday's Council agenda.

Bike Lanes

On July 22 the Municipal Services Committee voted unanimously to continue to hold an action item calling for portions of five streets to be retrofitted with bike lanes when other portions of those streets come up for reconstruction in the coming years. This item will not be on Wednesday's Council agenda.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Monday, July 21, 2014

What you may not know: Week of July 21

It's a committee week for the Appleton Common Council, and it might be the busiest one in my year and a half as a member of this body. Normally I try to write about two or three topics here, but this week I can't narrow it down to less than five.

City Plan Commission, Monday, 4 pm

As you might have seen in the Post Crescent, the city's policy for painted signs and/or murals on the side of buildings has come under fire recently. The issue came to light when a mural at Wilmar Chocolates was found to be in violation.

In response, at our council meeting three weeks ago five alderpersons co-sponsored a resolution calling for immediate suspension of enforcement of the ordinance and a review of the policy. That resolution comes before the City Plan Commission on Monday.

I suspect the resolution will pass at committee, as it only calls for a temporary halt to enforcement to give us time to review the policy. The next step, the actual policy review, is likely to present a more interesting challenge. Allowing murals like the one at Wilmar is a no-brainer, but if we allow painted signs in this instance because they're art, then we put ourselves in the position of having to determine what is or is not art.

This is likely only the first step in a long conversation on this issue.

Central Equipment Agency Review Committee, Tuesday, 4 pm

Two weeks ago at the Safety & Licensing Committee we learned for the first time about an issue with one of Appleton's largest and most expensive fire trucks, our 100-foot aerial platform truck. The torque box which holds up the platform had cracked, and could take several months to repair. This is the only truck of its kind in the city, although a couple of our neighboring communities also have one.

The discovery of this issue has led to a re-evaluation of our options with this truck. The truck is 14 years old and was scheduled to be replaced in 2020. It's become increasingly expensive to repair, and the need for frequent maintenance will take it out of commission more and more often as it continues to age.

As such, it's time to start looking at the possibility of replacing this truck early instead of continuing to pour money into an asset that's near the end of its life cycle. There is the possibility in place to buy a stock unit from Pierce Manufacturing for $920,000, which is about $300-$500,000 less than it would cost to buy a custom unit but about $200,000 more than the combined balance of the money saved for the purchase of a new truck and the trade-in value of the existing truck. That overrun would have to be borrowed or come out of the city's fund balances for us to be able to make this move.

Borrowing and/or digging into fund balances to replace a piece of equipment early isn't something we want to do if we can avoid it, but in this case it appears to be a fiscally prudent move. Furthermore, there is a safety factor to consider: Buying the stock unit from Pierce, as recommended by staff, is the quickest way to have an operational truck in place and helping protect our community.

Assuming this item passes the CEA Review Committee, it will also appear as an action item before the Finance and Safety & Licensing Committees on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

Municipal Services Committee, Tuesday, 5:30 pm

I've written previously about the five latest streets being discussed as part of Appleton's on-street bike plan. A month ago three alderpersons called for portions of Capitol Drive, Prospect Avenue, Roemer Road, N. Oneida Street and Telulah Avenue to have bike lanes installed in the coming years to help add connectivity of lanes when other portions of those streets or nearby streets are reconstructed. That resolution was held at the June 24 meeting and will be heard again on Tuesday night.

Bike lanes have been one of the more challenging topics we've heard during my time on the council, as we've frequently heard from people who have a wide variety of opinions on the city's responsibility to create bicycle-friendly infrastructure and what it means to do so.

Four months ago I made a list of frequently-asked questions regarding bike lanes, and odds are we'll answer many of those questions again on Tuesday.

Finance Committee, Wednesday, 4:30 pm

A pair of longstanding council topics will take center stage at this meeting. First, we have a request to approve what's called a "Resolution of Necessity" for the city to purchase two properties that could combine to become the future home of the Appleton Public Library.

There has been a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding making the rounds on this topic, and this Post Crescent Community Column clears up a fair amount of it. The city is not planning on and has no interest in "forcing out" either Michiels or Trinity. The eminent domain process being used is a legal necessity to help those two properties determine the value of their space and make an informed decision about how to proceed. If they turn out to be unwilling to sell, the city will likely proceed with other options.

At any rate, the next step in that process is for the Finance Committee and council to approve the "necessity" of purchasing the sites, allowing the city and the library to continue efforts to acquire them. I expect the committee to approve on Wednesday, and the council will take the matter up next week.

Second, we have the next portion of our long-standing review of Appleton's policies regarding special assessments. Last week council wrapped up the new subdivision portion of the policy, and this week we'll start our review of the utilities.

The utilities portion of special assessments don't draw as much attention as the street reconstruction section, but repairs and related work can still be pretty expensive. I'm eager to see what possibilities we may discuss to make adjustments here.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Monday, July 14, 2014

What you may not know: Week of July 14

The Appleton Common Council will meet on Wednesday at 7 pm to take up items that mostly appeared before committees last week, so it's time for updates on items I've covered recently:

Parking for Mile of Music 2:

Last Tuesday the Municipal Services Committee voted 3-2 to recommend denial of a resolution calling for parking meter enforcement to cease for four days during Mile of Music in August. Concerns expressed included the challenges of getting parking spaces to turn over and be available without meter enforcement, the relative unfairness of waiving parking meters for this event but not others, challenges involved in making people aware of the lack of need to plug meters and more. That resolution will come before council Wednesday night.

Special Assessments, New Subdivision Portion:

Last Wednesday the Finance Committee again voted 3-1 to recommend approval of a modified version of the New Subdivision portion of the city's Special Assessment policy. The changes would move the responsibility for paying for the installation of permanent streets in a new subdivision from the developers (who had been either tacking it onto the price of new lots or charging property owners later) to the property owners themselves. The proposed new policy mirrors one the city had up until 2004.

This is the only part of the special assessment policy we'll be addressing at council on Wednesday. Assuming we reach a final resolution on this, we'll be taking up the utilities portion of the policy at Finance next Wednesday.

Wheel Tax:

Last week the Finance Committee voted to hold a proposal calling for Appleton to institute a "Wheel Tax" as a potential funding source for street repairs. That item will be revisited when the committee discusses the street reconstruction portion of the special assessment policy, likely in a month or so.

Finally, we do have one piece of new business on our agenda this week:

Minimum Wage Referendum:

The City Clerk's office recently received a petition with well over 4700 signatures calling for yet another advisory referendum in this fall's election. This one asks whether voters would be in favor of raising Wisconsin's minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. This would be the second advisory referendum added to Appleton's ballot, and a third has been added by Outagamie County.

Advisory referendums do not change policy in any way, but they are one way to measure and document voter support (or lack of support) for an issue or proposed policy change. Out of respect to the work that went into collecting all of these petition signatures, I plan on supporting their desire to have this question appear on the ballot.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

What you may not know: Week of July 7

Please accept my apologies for this week's belated post (and no post last week). I'm just getting back from a few days away over the holiday and working on catching up today.

With that said, the Appleton Common Council's first committee week of July is underway, and here are some of the items on my radar:

Municipal Services, Tuesday, 5:30 pm

The much-maligned downtown parking meters will step back into the spotlight at tonight's Municipal Services meeting, where an action item and an informational item will discuss a temporary and permanent change to their enforcement.

First, the committee will take up a resolution submitted by four alderpersons at last week's council meeting calling for meter enforcement to cease during the active hours of Mile of Music 2, scheduled for August 7-10. The rationale is that the event will bring many first-time visitors to our downtown, and we'd rather not have a parking ticket be part of their introduction to the city.

The resolution also likely creates some additional challenges, though. For example, if we remove parking enforcement downtown during the event, what will keep someone from claiming a prime parking space on the first hour of the event and staying there all day (or all weekend?). Part of the attraction of the meters is their ability to keep spaces turning over, so people coming downtown have a better chance of finding a spot. 

I'm intrigued to hear the debate on this proposal. Allowing free parking during this event could be a good thing, if it can be done without creating major challenges.

The information item is one we've discussed before: Alderperson Kathy Plank's resolution calling for staff to study the possibility of removing meters downtown. This item was previously held until a full downtown parking study could be completed, but is back on the agenda this week. I'll be curious to see if there are any updates on the possibility.

Finance, Wednesday, 4:30 pm

Beyond the parking debate, virtually all of this week's major news is likely to come from Wednesday afternoon's Finance Committee meeting. Items on the agenda include:
  • The "New Subdivision" portion of the special assessment policy. Two weeks ago the committee voted unanimously to amend the plan to call for property owners in new subdivisions to be assessed for the installation of their permanent streets, as we did for subdivisions platted before 2004. From 2004 until now developers have been asked to place money in an escrow account to pay for that eventual construction. The portion of the policy we will debate on Wednesday deals only with new subdivisions. Portions dealing with reconstruction of streets and utilities will be discussed at later meetings.
  • Alderman Joe Martin's resolution calling for the city to institute a "Wheel Tax" of not more than $20 per vehicle to cover the loss of revenue if the city elected to eliminate special assessments. We're still in the very early stages of considering this proposal and it's not my favorite alternative to the existing assessment policy, but it is an option to consider and I'm glad we're getting the opportunity to discuss it.
  • A staff recommendation calling for the contract to construct the new Telulah Park Skate Park to be awarded to Miron Construction Company. This project has been sent out for bids once before but all of the bids were rejected as they greatly exceeded our budget for this item. On our second try we were able to get bids that more accurately reflect what we're prepared to spend. Assuming this request passes the committee and council, construction is expected to begin in early August and be completed in the fall.
You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.