Monday, April 25, 2016

What you may not know: Week of April 25

A new council year is underway, and this week the Appleton Common Council has its first full slate of committee meetings scheduled. This year I'm honored to be serving in the following groups:

  • Chairperson of the Safety & Licensing Committee (third year on committee, second year as chair).
  • Member of the Finance Committee (third year).
  • Member of the Fox Cities Transit Commission (fourth year).
  • Member of the City Plan Commission (second year).
I'm honored to be back in all of these roles, and grateful to the mayor and my colleagues for giving me this slate of opportunities for another year. I'm also hopeful to remain as the Finance Committee's representative on the Central Equipment Agency Review Committee. That appointment will be made this week.

This week's committee schedule includes a variety of housekeeping-type items, including electing vice chairs for each committee, setting committee schedules and the like. Beyond that, one item likely to be of some interest is on a pair of agendas:

Parks & Recreation, Monday, 6 pm
Municipal Services, Tuesday, 6:30 pm

Appleton's municipal bicycle infrastructure, mainly bike lanes, has been one of the most hotly debated topics during my 3+ years on council as we've faced challenges at every opportunity to find a way for moving cars, parked cars and bikes to share the roads and build a network of bike-friendly routes across the city. 

Some of that debate will likely come up again this week as two committees are asked to consider a resolution submitted by Alderman Joe Martin calling for the city to have a shared employee between the Parks & Recreation and Public Works departments to develop new bicycle programs, seek and apply for grants and continue work to make the city a more bike and pedestrian friendly community.

We're still in the very early stages of this conversation, so a lot would need to be ironed out in terms of how this position would work. I think it's an interesting conversation to have, though, and I'm looking forward to the discussion.

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, April 18, 2016

What you may not know: Week of April 18

A new council year begins this week as we swear in our one new council member, re-assign our standing committees and review our council rules before settling in for our regularly scheduled council meeting on Wednesday night.

Organizational Meeting, Wednesday, 6 pm

As I mentioned above, council has some housekeeping work to do this week to establish the framework for our new council year. At least once annually, as council turns over following the spring elections, we come together to review and consider amendments to our council rules. This year I have one proposed change related to holding meetings during winter storm events.

As I look out my office window this morning it's hard to believe that it was snowing about a week ago. Nonetheless, this winter's handful of heavy snow events brought an issue to the forefront regarding the way we schedule and hold meetings during the winter months. All of our committee and council meetings meet at the call of the chair, meaning it's up to our chairpersons to decide whether or not to cancel a meeting in the event of inclement weather or other factors. This creates some possibility for inconsistency: A few weeks ago during a snow emergency, for example, we had two meetings cancelled and one go on as scheduled.

There are a pair of challenges with holding meetings during snow events or times of extreme cold. The first, of course, is safety. One of the first things we hear during times of extreme weather is to avoid unnecessary travel. Holding public meetings during times where we're openly advising people to stay indoors and/or off the roads sends a challenging mixed message. As I said in the resolution, attending a meeting of the Appleton Common Council should not require citizens to expose themselves to potentially dangerous conditions. Additionally, snow events sometimes cause significant parking restrictions downtown, making it increasingly difficult for our constituents to reach our meetings.

This rule change could create some new challenges, of course: Notices for our public meetings announce a specific date and time, and moving those dates or times around does create confusion. Additionally, council occasionally faces items that have a critical timing element and being forced to cancel a meeting could create a time crunch there. However, I think the safety element has to take priority here.

Common Council, Wednesday, 7 pm (or shortly after the conclusion of the organizational meeting)

Once the organizational meeting concludes we'll move on to our regularly-scheduled council meeting. This week's highlights are all items we discussed in last week's post, so here's a brief update:

  • The City Plan Commission voted unanimously last Monday to reaffirm their recommendation for a rezoning on Schaefer Circle that would allow for additional multifamily housing to be developed near the existing facilities. They had previously voted 5-1 to recommend approval, so this is actually a stronger statement than they made before.
  • Last week the Municipal Services Committee voted 4-0 to approve a contract with TAPCO to purchase and install a Parking Access and Revenue Control System for city parking ramps to help with our transition to a "pay on exit" model and the ability to accept credit cards and parking validations.
  • Last week on Tuesday and Wednesday the Finance and Community and Economic Development committees, respectively, voted to recommend approval of staff's request to purchase 7+ acres of land just outside our borders in the Town of Grand Chute, and annex them into the city with the intention of using them someday as business/industrial property. The only major development from that conversation was the committee learning that the property owner immediately to the west of this property, who owns an additional ~20 acres, is also interested in selling.
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, April 11, 2016

What you may not know: Week of April 11

This is a bit of an unusual week for the Appleton Common Council, as our standing committees meet for one final time before (potentially) being rearranged a bit when our new council member is sworn in and a new council year begins next week.

Nonetheless, we have a busy set of agendas to consider this week. Here is what I'll be following:

City Plan Commission, Monday, 4 pm

Last week at council we referred back a proposed rezoning on Schaefer Circle that would allow an existing multifamily development to construct another apartment building on their site. Within the last two years the property has changed hands and new ownership has made significant improvements to the facilities, but the neighbors we've heard from still seem upset over the general lack of upkeep under the previous owners, impact on property values and additional traffic.

Back in March the City Plan Commission voted 5-1 to recommend this item for approval. To the best of my knowledge little has changed since then.

Municipal Services, Tuesday, 6:30 pm

Work continues on implementation of many of the objectives identified in last year's downtown parking study, and we'll take a big step forward over the next couple of weeks as council will be asked to approve a contract with TAPCO to purchase and install a Parking Access and Revenue Control System for three of the city's downtown parking ramps.

The new system will allow the city to transition to a pay-on-exit, time-based model instead of our existing pay-on-entry, flat fee existing model. It also allows for the installation of both "pay on foot" and "pay in exit lane" stations that will accept credit cards and a parking validation system. The cost of the purchase and installation of the new system is $650,000 and will be paid (to my understanding) by the Parking Utility, not general fund dollars.

Community and Economic Development, Wednesday, 5 pm

Finally, on Wednesday we'll be asked for the first time to consider a proposed purchase of a property along Edgewood Drive in the Town of Grand Chute that would then be annexed into the city of Appleton.

The property's address is 110 W. Edgewood Drive, which falls between Meade and Richmond Streets. It's currently a single-family home with an outbuilding on 7.29 acres of property but has been identified on the city's future land use map as Business/Industrial. The city's Comprehensive Plan calls for work to ensure "a continued adequate supply of industrial and commercial land to sustain new business development."

Staff is asking for approval to offer $299,900 to purchase this property, which is about $41,000 per acre. The offer includes several contingencies, including inspections and feasibility studies to ensure no pre-existing issues with or under the site and buildability of the site going forward. The money to purchase this site would come from the city's Industrial Park Land fund, and would not need to be borrowed.

I'm looking forward to a discussion this week on this property's possible future use, the price and the impact on neighboring properties.

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.





Tuesday, April 5, 2016

What you may not know: Week of April 4, Election Day edition

Good morning folks,

I'm quite pressed for time today so I hope you'll forgive me for skipping my usual update, but while I have a moment I did want to remind everyone that today is the spring election in Appleton, so please get out and cast your vote. In addition to the presidential primary you've likely heard about, today voters across the city will also have contested races for mayor and the state supreme court.

If you live in the 13th district, your polling location is Faith Lutheran Church, at 3100 E Evergreen Drive. If you don't live in the 13th district or you're not sure, you can find your polling location at my.appleton.org. The polls are open from 7 am-8 pm today, and this time you are required to present a photo ID.

Thanks for reading and voting, and have a great day!