Monday, April 21, 2014

What you may not know: Week of April 21

The second year of my two-year term (hopefully my first of many) on Appleton's city council officially began last week, when we held our organizational meeting, swore in two new members and the new council met for the first time. With a new year comes new committee assignments, and this year I'll be serving on:

  • The Finance Committee
  • The Safety and Licensing Committee
  • The Transit Commission (my second year here)
In addition, I was fortunate to be elected by my peers to represent the council on the City Plan Commission. I'm sad to be leaving the Utilities and Parks & Rec committees after just one year, but I'm excited for these new opportunities and will likely stay involved with my former assignments.

Now that our new committees have been assigned, we have a full week of meetings ahead of us. Here are some of the highlights:

City Plan Commission, Monday, 4 pm

My first meeting as a member of this commission will be a big one, as we're expected to make a decision on a zoning issue within the 13th district.

All three action items on the agenda (an amendment to the city's Comprehensive Land Use Map, a zoning change and a special use permit) pertain to one property on Ballard Road, just north of the intersection with Milestone Drive. The city has received a proposal to allow a "Community Living Arrangement" serving 50 persons on the site.

Via a document on the City of Milwaukee's site, here's a quick summary of what kind of state-permitted facilities are considered Community Living Arrangements:

  • Residential Care Center – a facility where 4 or more children reside and are provided with care and maintenance for no more than 75 days in any consecutive 12 month period by persons other than a relative or guardian 
  • Group Home or Group Foster Home – a facility where 5 to 8 foster children reside and are provided with care and maintenance by persons other than a relative or guardian 
  • Community Based Residential Facility - a facility where 5 or more adults not related to the operator reside and are provided with care, treatment or services above the level of room and board but less than nursing care.
In addition to the plan amendment, zoning change and special use permit, a facility built on this space (or anywhere else in the 13th district) will require an exception to a city rule stating that "The total capacity of all CLA’s within any aldermanic district may not exceed 1% of the total population of that aldermanic district.” 

As of the 2010 census, the population of District 13 was 4,796 people. 1% of that population is roughly 48 persons, and the district already exceeds that capacity in CLAs with three Grand Horizons facilities on Cherryvale Avenue that could hold a combined 66 residents. If this facility is approved, it will put the district at more than 200% of the proposed limit.

I'm eager to hear more about this proposal on Monday night before making a final decision on it.

Municipal Services, Tuesday, 5:30 pm

A day later, an information item on the Municipal Services Committee agenda deals with an intersection just up the street. For several months now city staff have been studying traffic patterns at the intersection of Ballard Road and Ashbury Drive (the southwest corner of North High School) following an accident last year where a pedestrian was struck while trying to cross the street.

On Tuesday night our traffic engineers will present their findings and a recommendation to add a stop light at the intersection. The possibility has been looked into before, but this is the first time where we've found a signal to be warranted. In addition, our study found that conditions will continue to worsen without a signal in coming years.

However, we're still pretty early in this process. Since the 2014 budget is already completed, funding for a potential change to the intersection is likely to appear in the 2015 budget.

Parks and Recreation, Wednesday, 6 pm

Back in March I wrote about an ongoing situation at the Gardens of the Fox Cities, where the independent group that had been operating the facility elected to cease operations earlier this year. Control and maintenance of the Gardens returned to the city at that point, and we've been working for a while to determine what happens next.

On Wednesday night staff is recommending the Parks and Recreation Committee recommend approval of a rental policy for the facility for this year. Renting out the facility for meetings, parties and events will hopefully allow us to recoup some of the money we're investing in keeping the grounds maintained. It's a policy we'll likely revisit in a year, but it's a step forward in the continued operation of this popular attraction.

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, April 15, 2014

What you may not know: Week of April 15

My apologies for the late post: It's been a remarkably busy week or so. Without further delay, here's what I'm watching this week:

Library Board, Tuesday, 4:30 pm

After years of study and careful consideration, on Tuesday afternoon the ten members of the Library Board are expected to make a decision today that will shape the future of the facility. After consideration of over a dozen sites across the city, the board has received a recommendation calling for a new library to be constructed on "site 3C," a pair of parcels of E Lawrence Street currently occupied by Trinity Lutheran Church and Fox Banquets & Rivertyme Catering.

As you might expect, this recommendation is the result of years of work. I've been fortunate to be a small part of that work as part of the library's Community Conversation focus groups and tours of other community libraries, both new and reconstructed. Any space will bring its challenges and this one is no exception, but I'm confident in the process that led us to this potential choice.

I'm looking forward to the conversation today and hopefully a vote that will allow the plans to move forward.

Organizational Meeting, Wednesday, 7 pm

Later tonight the Appleton Common Council will meet informally to swear in our two new members and start a conversation on the council rules going forward. We do this once annually and, while it's probably not a big deal to most observers, the review of our rules is very important to maintaining a functioning council and improving our processes going forward.

Following the informal gathering, council will reconvene at 6 pm Wednesday to vote on potential rule changes and propose amendments to the rules. It's a tedious process at times but it's a great reminder of our expectations from each other and our constituents.

Common Council, Wednesday, 7 pm (or shortly after the Organizational Meeting)

Once we get past all of that, the council does have some city business to take up at our scheduled full council meeting. One of the items on our agenda is one I discussed last week: an amendment to our 2014 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) allocations.

The city received slightly more money than expected from the federal government to fund this program, leaving slightly more than $25,000 extra available to be allocated to applicants. Because of limits on how this money can be spent, $3,280 was available for groups labeled as "public service," with the remainder available to be split between three applicants whose focus was housing.

After some debate the committee voted 4-1 to allocate an addition $7,306.66 each to the Housing Partnership of the Fox Cities, Greater Fox Cities Habitat for Humanity and Appleton Housing Authority, and to give $3,280 (the maximum available) to NAMI to help fill part of the gap between their original request and previous award. The council will get the opportunity to amend or approve this decision.

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, April 6, 2014

What you may not know: Week of April 6

This is kind of an unusual week for the Appleton Common Council. As you likely know, we had elections last week and two new members were elected to the council (not counting Polly Dalton, who we appointed a few weeks earlier). Those new members won't be sworn in until Tuesday, April 15, though.

In the meantime, though, we still have committee meetings scheduled for this week with our old committee alignment, and we have some remarkably significant items on the agendas. Here are some of the things I'm watching:

Community and Economic Development, Monday, 5 pm

Frequent readers of this space will certainly be aware of Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a federally-funded program to help enhance the quality of life of low-to-moderate income residents. Back in February I wrote about nearly $125,000 in grant awards proposed for this year. That was based on an estimate that the city would receive $500,000 in grants overall.

Back in March the city received notice that our grant award is actually slightly higher, at $525,200. That leaves us an extra $25,200 to allocate, and that's the task that will be given to the Community and Economic Development Committee on Monday.

The committee has the authority to distribute this money to any approved project they wish, but I suspect they'll focus on five organizations who received less than their full funding request in the original allocations: Harbor House, NAMI, Step Industries, Housing Partnership of the Fox Cities and Greater Fox Cities Habitat for Humanity.

Municipal Services Committee, Tuesday, 5:30 pm

Parking meters downtown are one of the longstanding issues facing the city, as council members frequently hear from residents who do not approve of having to pay to park near city buildings and other amenities. We might take the first step towards eliminating those meters on Tuesday.

Last week at council Alderperson Kathy Plank proposed a resolution that calls for the city to analyze removing meters downtown and replacing them with license plate reader technology. My understanding is that the technology exists to purchase a vehicle that would scan license plates downtown all day and enforce two hour maximums on downtown spots.

There are a ton of questions to be answered here, including the following:

  • Removing the meters will cause a loss of revenue for the city's parking utility. Are we willing to lose that money, and if not, how can we replace it?
  • Does having a vehicle that drives around scanning license plates all day create a surveillance issue? How will the data on which vehicles are parked downtown be maintained, and who will have access to it?
In the meantime, though, before that conversation can fully happen council needs to approve this resolution asking staff to analyze the alternatives. I hope we'll do so, because only good things can come from that conversation.

Finance, Wednesday, 4:30 pm

Along with downtown parking, special assessments for road and sewer construction projects are also one of the most controversial issues the council faces. Last week Alderperson Plank also proposed a resolution calling for a review of that practice and a look into the possibility that special assessments could be replaced with money from the city's general fund.

I'm strongly in favor of a full review of the special assessment policy, because a lot of expensive work is done this way and I'd like to know if there are viable alternatives to the current system, where property owners pay large one-time charges for work done on or near their property. I anticipate that one of the arguments against a change, though, will be that using special assessments allows us to complete more projects. Because of levy limits, we don't have the option of raising property taxes to offset the loss of special assessment dollars. 

Again, this resolution isn't a change to the policy, just a request for city staff to analyze it. I'm hopeful we'll pass this resolution and give this practice thorough scrutiny later this year.

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.