Monday, January 25, 2016

What you may not know: Week of January 25

It's a committee week for the Appleton Common Council, and here are the items I'll be watching:

Finance Committee, Tuesday, 4:30 pm

An item related to the Exhibition Center project will appear on the agenda at this meeting and again at Wednesday's Appleton Redevelopment Authority (4 pm) and Community and Economic Development Committee (5 pm) meetings.

The item pertains to some budget overages related to the final stage of the property acquisition and pursuit of agreements between all of the partner municipalities as the final decisions were made to proceed with this project last November. Our contract with Hinshaw and Culbertson, the consulting firm working on this project, set a budget for $80,000 in hourly labor during what had been labeled as "Phase III" of the effort. The actual bill for hourly labor is more than $30,000 over budget.

The explanation we've been given for these overages is the complex nature of the agreements needed and the compressed timeframe generated by the November deadline to close on the property. Portions of this overage can be applied to the project's bonding, meaning the overage will be paid by room tax dollars and not property tax dollars. Nonetheless, I find it troubling that our estimates for the cost of this portion of the project were this far off.

Also at this meeting, we'll have the latest in a series of discussions about a proposed ordinance change that would allow alderpersons to participate in council meetings remotely when they're unable to attend. I've written about this on multiple previous occasions, most recently in December. At this week's meeting we should have details from a test of our technological capacity that will help illuminate this discussion.

Utilities Committee, Tuesday, 5:30 pm

Also on Tuesday, we'll learn more about changes in the city's upcoming water main work that will impact traffic this summer at the intersection of Northland Avenue and Richmond Street.

I believe I've mentioned previously that the city and state have been working for a long time on a redesign for this intersection, which is scheduled to be reconstructed in 2017. It's relatively common for a project like this to include reconstruction of the utility infrastructure under the street in an effort to avoid having to rip up the street a second time to make necessary repairs in the future. The city's current five-year plan included a budget item for water main work in this area in 2017, to coincide with the street project.

Unfortunately, we've since received word from the state that it's not going to be feasible to proceed that way. In that event, the second-best option is to do the water main work before the reconstruction, so that once the final concrete is poured we shouldn't need to dig it up again.

As such, on Tuesday the Utilities Committee will be asked to consider a proposal that would move the water main portion of this project up to 2016. There are two notable implications from this change:

  1. First, a budget adjustment will need to be made. Staff has identified four water main projects scheduled for 2016 that can be delayed to allow this project to proceed within the existing money available.
  2. Additionally, this likely means there will be some traffic impact in this area this summer as portions of the road will need to be closed for this work.
I'm assuming we'll have more details on the latter point in the weeks and months to come.

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. Good governance happens in the open, and I remain committed to raising awareness on the issues coming before us.

Monday, January 11, 2016

What you may not know: Week of January 11

All right, can we take a brief break from talking about yesterday's Packers game to discuss the items coming before the City of Appleton's committees this week?

City Plan Commission, Monday, 4 pm

A few weeks ago this body recommended approval for a zoning change that would allow a small new subdivision along the south side of Glenhurst Lane. This week a related item will come before the commission and we'll get a few more details about the plans for this site.

The action item this week is a preliminary plat for the site, now known as Pond View Estates. It will feature 13 single family residential lots and one outlot. You can see the details of the plat on the attachment on this page.

I don't anticipate this item being controversial: The last time it was discussed at City Plan, several residents of the neighboring Villas at Apple Creek came to speak in favor of the change.

Board of Health, Wednesday, 7 am

Some time ago now Alderperson Vered Meltzer submitted a resolution calling for the city to make a change to its ordinance regulating ownership of pet snakes. That item came before the Board of Health as an informational item in December and will be back before them as an action item this Wednesday morning.

The city's current ordinance, passed nearly 40 years ago, bans all snakes over three feet in length. This ordinance is both inconsistent with nearly every other community in the state and, according to some of what we've heard to date, creates some significant challenges for well-meaning snake owners whose pets may have grown larger than expected. The resolution calls for snakes up to six feet long to be allowed.

I'm sure this item will generate plenty of discussion in the weeks to come. I know snakes are a common phobia and there will likely be some level of "ew" factor in the conversation. I'm hopeful that we can get past that and have an honest dialogue about whether banning snakes between three and six feet is actually serving public safety in any real way.

Safety & Licensing, Wednesday, 6 pm

Way back in November I submitted a resolution calling for the city to make changes to its policy related to secondhand dealers and required holding periods for the items they purchase for resale. I wrote about this item in my December 1 update.

The item has been held on a couple of occasions to allow for further research into what's happening in other communities and to give more secondhand dealers an opportunity to weigh in. It will be back before the Safety & Licensing Committee on Wednesday as an action item.

During this process we've learned more about how some of our neighboring communities handle this, including Green Bay. Green Bay has moved to the seven-day holding period called for in the resolution, but also requires secondhand dealers to take a picture of all items that do not have a serial or identifying number.

This requirement strikes me as the best of both worlds: Having a digital photograph of all items sold to secondhand dealers will make it much easier for potential victims of theft to identify items that may have been theirs but would still allow the secondhand dealers in Appleton to operate on a level playing field with those in neighboring communities.

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. Good governance happens in the open, and I remain committed to raising awareness on the issues coming before us.

Monday, January 4, 2016

What you may not know: Week of January 4

I hope everyone had a safe, happy, relaxing holiday season. Just as many of you are heading back to work today for the first full week of 2016, the Appleton Common Council is also getting back into the swing of things on Wednesday night at 7 pm with our first scheduled council meeting of the new year. The agenda is relatively light but includes a pair of items I'll be following:

County Highway JJ redesign

Back in early December I wrote about a pair of proposals to redesign the portion of County Highway JJ between Ballard Road and Lightning Drive in an effort to respond to increased traffic (and expected further traffic increases) in the area and safety issues created by the North High School exit directly across from the Kwik Trip entrance.

On December 8 the Municipal Services Committee discussed the pair of proposed options for this redesign but elected not to approve either of them, instead asking for staff to bring back additional options for consideration. I agree with their decision but it's worth noting that this comes with a cost: On Wednesday both the committee (at a special 6:30 meeting) and council will be asked to approve a $24,000 contract amendment for OMNNI Associates to analyze three additional possibilities.

Assuming this amendment passes, the options would be presented at a future Muni Services meeting, likely their scheduled meeting on January 26. I'm sure I'll have more updates on this project as we proceed.

District 8 vacancy

At our last full council meeting in December we opted to delay action related to the newly vacated seat on the council from the city's eighth district. We have the option to appoint a new alderperson to fill the remainder of Polly Dalton's term, which expires in April, but the current election window complicates matters a bit.

Candidates have until Tuesday at 5 pm to file papers to appear on the ballot for the spring election, and last I had heard three candidates had expressed some interest in running for this position. By Wednesday night we'll know how many of them acquired the necessary petition signatures, and if this will be a contested race.

As I've written previously, I think it's a bad practice for council to appoint someone to represent a district where none of us reside. The results of Tuesday's filing deadline will likely determine how we handle this:

  • If more than one candidate has filed to run for this seat, then it's my personal opinion that council has an obligation to stay out of that race and let the voters decide. Appointing one of those candidates would be an implied endorsement of that candidate in the spring election, which I feel is unfair to everyone involved.
  • If only one candidate has filed, then I personally will still oppose appointing them to the seat for the reasons I mentioned above but I suspect council will move on despite my objections. This is what happened when Ms. Dalton was appointed to the seat roughly two years ago.
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. Good governance happens in the open, and I remain committed to raising awareness on the issues coming before us.