What you may not know: Week of August 19

The Appleton Common Council will hold its regularly scheduled full council meeting on Wednesday night at 7 pm, and three topics we discussed in my last update will be back on the agenda:

Truancy Ordinance

Last Wednesday the Safety & Licensing Committee voted 3-2 to recommend Appleton repeal its truancy ordinance in light of the Appleton Area School District's recent decision not to use truancy citations as part of their attendance management plan going forward.

I was one of the dissenting votes on this decision for a pair of reasons:

• First, as we heard at the meeting, AASD's decision does not cover the thousands of students in the city who attend private schools and have utilized or could utilize this ordinance. 
• Second, while everyone involved hopes that AASD's new process will be successful, it's still a work in progress. Much still needs to be done to prepare, staff and evaluate their new system, and it continues to be my preference to keep the ordinance on the books until we're certain it won't be needed again.

Golf Carts

The Safety & Licensing Committee voted unanimously to recommend denial of a resolution calling for the city to allow limited use of golf carts on streets. This decision was made at least in part due to a large wave of public backlash to the proposal, but for me the largest factor in the decision was the fact that we received very little public support for it.

E-cigarettes

Finally, the committee also voted 4-1 to recommend approval of a resolution calling for the city to prohibit the use and possession of e-cigarettes for minors. This was a change from what I said I was expecting in last week's update: Discussions during the week made it clear to me that this item did not need to be referred to staff for further dialogue, as there was plenty of precedent to refer to on this item when crafting an ordinance.

2019 Borrowing

Finally, I'll close with a bit of good news. Last Monday Brad Viegut of Robert W. Baird and Company presented to the Finance Committee regarding the city's 2019 borrowing package and expected bond issuance. Recent fluctuation in the market and the city's excellent bond rating mean we're projecting an interest rate under 2% for this year's borrowing. This is great news for taxpayers, as the debt service portion of future budgets will be lower as a result.

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.

What you may not know: Week of August 12

It's a committee week for the Appleton Common Council, and nearly all of this week's most notable headlines are likely to come from one committee:

Safety and Licensing, Wednesday, 5:30 pm

The Safety and Licensing Committee has a packed agenda this week, including three resolutions submitted by one or more members of council.

Truancy

One of the resolutions returning to committee this week is Alderman William Siebers' request for the city to repeal its ordinance regarding truancy. This item was discussed by the committee in May but held until this week's meeting to give the Appleton Area School District an opportunity to develop a new plan for the 2019-20 school year. The School Board is expected to meet today (Monday) to take action on a proposed plan, which I expect will inform our discussions on the topic on Wednesday.

Golf Carts

The second resolution returning to committee this week is Alderman Chris Croatt's request for the city to consider allowing the operation of golf carts on some city streets. This item was last discussed at our July 17 meeting and held over until this week's meeting.

At our last meeting I shared my frustration with a request asking city staff to spend time studying this matter because I was not convinced there was enough public demand for this resolution to justify taking their time away from other priorities. Since then the issue has been covered both on television and in the newspaper and while I've heard from a lot of folks with concerns, I've still only heard from two people in support of this proposed change.

Barring some massive groundswell of support between now and Wednesday's meeting, I intend to vote to deny this resolution.

E-Cigarettes

Finally, the Safety & Licensing Committee will also take up a new resolution from Alderperson Cathy Spears calling for the city to prohibit the use and possession of e-cigarettes for minors. This will be the city's second resolution on e-cigarettes this year: Back in May we also voted to expand the city's smoke free indoor air ordinance to include e-cigarettes.

For a resolution like this that has not appeared on our agenda before, the normal first step is to refer the item to staff for further study. I anticipate we'll do that this week and it will return to us for action at a future meeting.

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.