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.