The Appleton Common Council will hold our regularly scheduled full council meeting on Wednesday night, but before we get there another notable meeting will have happened:
Library Board, Tuesday, 4:30 pm
Efforts to determine the future of the Appleton Public Library will take another step forward this week as the Library Board will be asked to review and approve a request for proposals (RFP) related to potential mixed-use facilities on the current library site or nearby within the downtown area. This item is also expected to come before council before being approved.
The RFP (which can be seen via the attachment at this link) lays out specific expectations for the library's required space (120,000 square feet), its expected role as the anchor of any development and its requirements for access. It also includes a map that clearly delineates the area to be considered and a requirement that any developer submitting a proposal be willing to take on the task of acquiring the properties they suggest if they intend to utilize non-city owned parcels. Additionally, any proposal involving the current library site is required to include plans for a temporary library during construction.
Assuming this RFP is approved on schedule, proposals would be due in by December 8 at noon and discussion on any proposals recommended for consideration would likely happen early in 2018.
Moving on to items on Wednesday's Common Council agenda:
Aldermanic salaries
As elected officials, members of the Common Council are prohibited from voting on our own salaries. As such, once each year we take up the task of setting a salary for our positions two years in advance, after all of our current terms have expired. Last week the Human Resources and Information Technology Committee was asked to consider aldermanic salaries starting in April of 2019, and voted 4-1 to give them a zero increase and remain at $6129.50 with an optional parking pass for the city's soon-to-be-demolished Blue Ramp.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index suggests that the rate of inflation from August of 2016 to August of 2017 was 1.93%, so a zero increase is effectively a pay cut when considered against inflation. The August-to-August CPI inflation calculation was used to help determine 2016's 2% increase and 2017's 1.1% increase. I'm hopeful that, at a bare minimum, council will consider adjusting the position's salary slightly to avoid falling behind inflation.
However, even a simple inflation adjustment would ignore a larger issue: Demand for seats on the Appleton Common Council is remarkably low. In 2017 eight seats (including mine) were up for re-election and we had just one contested race. In one case we had an uncontested race for an open seat. In 2016 just two of our seven seats had contested races. In the five years since I first ran for council in 2013 63% of the aldermanic races have gone uncontested, including 80% in the last two years.
As I noted in my budget preview a couple of weeks ago alderpersons are tasked with, among other things, oversight, review and adoption of the city's $170 million annual budget. The city's ability to function going forward depends on our ability to continue to find qualified and engaged people to serve on our council. More and more often, we're finding that people aren't interested. Given that the position pays less than $6000/year (the $6129.50 figure cited above doesn't take effect until next April), it isn't hard to imagine why we aren't seeing many candidates.
In virtually any other business, opening jobs for applications and routinely hearing from one or zero applicants would be a cause for alarm and reevaluation. As a council, we've been there for years. I'm hopeful we'll do something to attempt to address this.
Finally, an update on an item that will appear on our agendas in the future:
Trick or Treating hours
In Appleton the official trick or treating hours are from 4-8 pm on Halloween night, which is a Tuesday this year. These hours have been in place since before my election to the council but every year I receive a few complaints and requests to alter the plan to better match our neighboring municipalities, who largely have shorter windows for this event. As such, two weeks ago I submitted a request for the city to re-evaluate our trick or treating procedures going forward.
Last week the Safety & Licensing Committee discussed this item for the first time and opted to delay action until December. No action will be taken on this item this week, and the trick or treating hours for 2017 will remain at 4-8 pm. However, the committee will take this item up again at our December meeting and may consider proposing changes for 2018 at that time.
You can see all of this week's meeting agendas 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.
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