Monday, September 21, 2015

What you may not know: Week of September 20

It's going to be a very busy committee week for the Appleton Common Council, with a collection of items we've mostly discussed before being the most notable:

Human Resources, Monday, 5 pm

The mayor of Appleton serves four-year terms, and will be up for election the next time in April of 2016. Back in March the Human Resources Committee was asked to make a recommendation on the mayoral salary for the next four years, and that action item has been held several times before eventually being approved, then referred back to committee last week.

The recommendation on the table calls for the mayor to receive 1.5% raises in each of the next four Aprils. This roughly amounts to a cost of living increase, and keeps the mayor's salary somewhat static when compared to the rate of inflation.

Months ago I discussed the challenge of finding fair comparable positions to use to set our mayor's salary, as our longstanding structure of a full-time mayor and no city manager or administrator is relatively rare. With that said, I think the mayor's current salary of $94,686 is fair compensation for his role and I support the current recommendation to make modest increases to it over the duration of the next term.

Parks & Recreation, Monday, 6 pm

Over the summer the Parks & Recreation and Safety & Licensing Committees spent a fair amount of time discussing the issue of alcohol in parks, as the Police Department has experienced a spike in issues related to our current policy of allowing park users to drink between 9 am and 9 pm. This policy is somewhat unique in the valley, as nearly all of our neighboring communities have either banned alcohol in parks altogether or require a permit to possess or consume alcohol in parks.

In August the Parks & Recreation Committee asked staff to provide more information on what the ordinance and procedure may look like if Appleton moved to a permit-only model, and on Monday they'll receive that information and be allowed to make a recommendation.

It's unfortunate to have to change a policy in all of our parks because of a relatively small group of people misbehaving in a relatively small number of our parks, but the reality is that our existing ordinances have allowed this to become an issue and have limited our police force's ability to resolve it.

Finance, Tuesday, 4:30 pm

The Finance Committee will be asked on Tuesday to make recommendations on several items, old and new:

  • First, the committee will again be asked to consider a proposed ordinance change that would allow alderpersons who cannot attend meetings to participate and sometimes vote on items. I approve of this item in concept but have been concerned with some of the specifics, including the determination of "good cause" for an alderperson to be absent, the lack of limits on times an alderperson can participate this way, and potential technical challenges involved in ensuring the remote participant can hear all debate and have their participation recorded.
  • The committee will also be asked to approve the city's special assessment policies for the 2016 budget year. I'm still working on evaluating and understanding the proposed changes for the year to come, and hope to have more on this item in future updates.
  • Finally, we'll also be asked to make a recommendation on a proposed change to a relatively new city ordinance dealing with licensing and permitting of businesses on properties that have fallen behind on their property taxes. An issue came to light this summer when a business renting space in a building was denied a license because their landlord had fallen behind on property taxes. The business owner had done nothing wrong but was forced to (at least temporarily) close due to this issue. Our legal department has proposed a change to the ordinance that would address this specific issue but retain much of the ordinance, which has otherwise been useful when dealing with delinquent properties.
Any committee recommendations on the above topics will appear before the full common council at their next scheduled meeting on Wednesday, October 7. 

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 8, 2015

What you may not know: Urban Beekeeping update

Between holiday week cancellations and light agendas, it's going to be a relatively quiet committee week for the Appleton Common Council. One frequent topic of discussion, however, is due up again:

Board of Health, Wednesday, 7 am

I've written about a resolution calling for the city to expand the allowed zonings for urban beekeeping in June, July and August and now the debate continues into September, when the Board of Health will be asked again to make a recommendation on the topic on Wednesday morning. They voted 3-1 to approve suggested changes to the city's ordinances on bees at their August meeting, but the matter was referred back to committee by Alderperson Cathy Spears, who wants to have another discussion on the differences between honeybees and mason bees.

Mason bees were discussed in the packet of information provided to board members in advance of their August meeting (and now, additionally, their September meeting) and, while they do provide some of the pollination benefits of honeybees, they produce very limited honey and no wax.

Anyone wanting to review the proposed ordinance language can do so via the third attachment on this page. Here are some highlights, for those not interested in the full review:

  • Beekeepers must have an annual permit from the Health Department, and must also have formal education and/or sufficient experience as a beekeeper.
  • Beekeepers must own and reside on the property where they intend to keep bees.
  • Beekeepers are limited to two hives on properties under half an acre, a limitation that will include nearly every single family home in the city.
  • Any property owners within 200 feet of a proposed hive will be notified and can object to the proposal, which would lead to the application being denied. The applicant can appeal a denial to the Board of Health.
  • Bees must be selected from "stock bred for gentleness and non-swarming characteristics," and any colony found to be aggressive shall be destroyed or re-queened.
Assuming the Board of Health takes action on this item on Wednesday, their recommendation will come before the full council on Wednesday, September 16.

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.