Monday, July 25, 2016

What you may not know: Week of July 25

The last full week of July is also a committee week for the Appleton Common Council, and here are some of the items of interest on various agendas:

Finance Committee, Tuesday, 4:30 pm

As part of the city's annual budget process, the Finance Committee and Common Council are asked to approve the city's special assessment policies for the following year during the summer. It's important that we take this up as early as possible because any changes could have 2017 budgetary implications.

The number of people impacted and the depth of impact felt due to special assessments has greatly decreased in recent years with the implementation of Appleton's wheel tax, which replaced the revenue lost by the elimination of assessments for street repairs. However, some assessments remain and, if any alderperson would like to propose changes to the system this is the time to do so. Personally, I have no amendments planned.

Municipal Services Committee, Tuesday, 6:30 pm

Efforts to turn the City of Appleton into a "Railroad Quiet Zone" will take a step forward on Tuesday night as the Municipal Services Committee receives a study from SRF Consulting Group on what it would take to make this happen. While the railroad does not run through or significantly impact the 13th district, I still frequently receive complaints about the volume and timing of train horns in the city and can only imagine the number of complaints received by alderpersons in districts with tracks running through. I'm looking forward to seeing what it would take to alleviate this issue.

Community and Economic Development, Wednesday, 5 pm

Back in March the Common Council voted to approve a recommendation to allocate around $500,000 in federal dollars available through the Community Development Block Grant program based on the results of an extended application process and review. Unfortunately, some unforeseen circumstances are going to require us to reopen that discussion this week.

One of the measures the federal government uses to gauge the effective use of grant dollars is timely expenditure: Grant dollars are supposed to be given to projects that can start quickly and expend the money within a program year. In this case, that creates an issue for one subrecipient that is experiencing an unexpected delay in a program due to changing state regulations. On Wednesday the committee will be asked to recommend approval of a reallocation plan that reassigns that subrecipient's funds among four other organizations that did not receive their entire request. Here's a quick breakdown of the new allocations:

  • STEP Industries requested $30,000 and will now receive $24,398.50, up from $12,384.
  • Harbor House requested $27,500 and will now receive $22,383.50, up from $21,085.
  • Homeless Connections requested $20,000 and will now receive $16,758.50, up from $15,460.
  • LEAVEN requested $20,000 and will now receive $16,758.50, up from $15,460.
  • NAMI had previously requested $23,400 and was awarded $15,460, but has since rescinded their request.

This process is challenging because we receive so many worthwhile proposals for what to do with the money we have available, and we very rarely have the resources available to fund any of the Public Service requests in full. However, we remain grateful to the applicant organizations for their work in our community and do our best to distribute the funds available in an equitable fashion.

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, July 18, 2016

What you may not know: Week of July 18

The Appleton Common Council will hold its regularly scheduled full council meeting on Wednesday at 7 pm. Both of this week's most notable (in my opinion) action items were discussed in last week's update, so I hope you won't mind that all I have this week is a brief update on their status:

  • On Monday the Parks and Recreation Committee voted 3-0 to recommend denial of a resolution calling for the city to allow leashed dogs in parks. I remain in favor of this change and I'm proud to be joined by over 700 petition signers, the Fox Cities Convention and Visitor's Bureau and Appleton Downtown Incorporated in supporting a change to our dated, fear-driven policies.
  • On Tuesday the Municipal Services Committee voted 4-0 to recommend approval of a request calling for the yield signs at the corner of Alexander and Lindbergh St (the northeast corner of Huntley Elementary School) to be changed to stop signs. This should pass council without debate or incident.
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, July 11, 2016

What you may not know: Week of July 11

Good morning, folks. I hope everyone had a safe and happy Fourth of July holiday. I spent mine up north visiting family. Now that I'm back, here's what on the agendas for our regularly-scheduled committee week:

Parks & Recreation, Monday, 6 pm:

One of the most contentious issues we've ever faced during my time on council returns to the spotlight this week, as the Parks & Recreation Committee will again be asked to consider a resolution to allow leashed dogs in Appleton city parks. Some of you will likely remember that this issue came up back in 2013, and was the subject of some pretty heated discussion at that time. To date, that discussion is the only time I've ever had to reply to a constituent email with the following:
Dear (redacted),
Thank you for your email. Please allow me to assure you that I do not have marbles in my brain.
I could go on for days on this issue (and over the coming months I'll likely get that opportunity), but for now I'll attempt to keep things brief by narrowing my argument down to a few bullet points:

  • There is plenty of precedent both within the Fox Valley (Neenah, for example) and beyond for allowing dogs in parks. The communities that have done so do not appear to be experiencing major issues with sanitation or safety as a result.
  • There's strong reason to believe our existing ordinance banning dogs in parks isn't actually keeping irresponsible pet owners out of parks. 
  • Furthermore, that irresponsible group represents a very small percentage of all pet owners and is not an acceptable reason to penalize all dog owners.
  • Encountering a leashed dog in a park, where you can give it a wide berth if you so choose, is actually less likely to cause an issue than encountering the same dog on a city sidewalk.
  • Having safe and controlled spaces to take a dog during training is a critically important part of the effort to have an obedient, well-socialized animal.
  • Having an unleashed, free-for-all dog park is not the same thing and does not offer the same training or socialization opportunities as having your leashed dog in a park.
  • We have anecdotal evidence to suggest that our policies on dogs in parks have caused dog owners to choose to visit or live elsewhere. 
I'm sure this issue is going to be contentious again in the weeks and perhaps months to come. At the end of the day, though, this is the simple reality for me: I'm not convinced that our current fear-driven policy is actually keeping anyone safer, but I do believe it's keeping a significant number of responsible people from enjoying our parks and making our community a less attractive place to visit and live.

Three years ago I asked council to please consider adopting a similar set of policies to what is currently established in state parks. The state rules include the following:
  • Pets must be on a leash (no longer than eight feet) and under control at all times. Pet owners who fail to control a pet or whose pet is creating a public nuisance may be asked to leave the park or issued citations.
  • Loose pets may be seized and treated as stray animals.
  • Pet owners are responsible for removal and disposal of waste products (just like they are on any other property).
  • Pets are not allowed inside buildings, in playgrounds, or places where food is being prepared.
I think this is a realistic framework for a compromise that would still leave our parks as a safe, usable space for all of the current users but also remove unnecessary restriction on our responsible pet owners.


Municipal Services Committee, Tuesday, 6:30 pm

A long project will take an important step forward on Tuesday night when the Municipal Services Committee has their first chance to see the results of our ongoing Downtown Mobility Study presented by AECOM and Toole Design Group. I have not yet seen the presentation but I'm eager to hear their findings and I hope we'll find recommendations within that we can implement to make our downtown safer and more accessible for all users.

Additionally, on Tuesday the committee will be asked to consider a recommendation to replace the current yield signs with stop signs at the corner of Alexander and Lindbergh streets. That's the northeast corner of the Huntley Elementary School grounds. Due to a technical issue I'm currently unable to open the attachment to read the rationale for this change, but I suspect this move will make this intersection a little safer for the pedestrians that cross the road here each school day.

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.