What you may not know: Week of April 22

It's the first committee week for the new Appleton Common Council and with it come lots of changes: Six of our seven committee chairmanships have turned over since last week and council has four new members since the spring elections.

I'm honored to report that I was selected by the Mayor or elected by my colleagues to the following positions last week:

• Common Council President (first time)
• Chairman, Safety & Licensing Committee (My fifth year as chairman and sixth year as a member)
• Member, Finance Committee (My sixth year in this role)
• Member, Community and Economic Development (first time)
• Member, Board of Review (first time)

Now, back to the items of interest from this week's agendas:

Municipal Services Committee, Monday, 4:30 pm

Last month the Municipal Services Committee was asked to consider some pretty significant changes to the way the city maintains sidewalks. The changes were recommended for denial at the committee level but referred back by council, and a new committee will get another chance to discuss them this week.

The City's current policy calls for sidewalk to be repaired or replaced at the city's expense if any of the following conditions occur:

1. There is a gap of more than 3/4" between sidewalk sections.
2. A sidewalk has settled out of vertical alignment more than 1" from normal grade.
3. There is a crack greater than half an inch in or between sidewalk sections
4. Sidewalk sections are out of conformance with design to a degree where water ponds on them.
5. Broken corners greater than 3".

Our staff recommendation was to eliminate items 2 and 4 from the list above. In the case of item #4, sidewalk sections where water ponds would be replaced during street reconstructions but would otherwise only be replaced if the homeowner replaces them at their own expense.

I have concerns about this proposal as it relates to snow and ice removal: Sidewalks where water is ponding are also likely to be sidewalks that are irreparably icy during the winter months.

City Plan Commission, Tuesday, 4 pm

A few weeks ago the City Plan Commission and Municipal Services Committee were asked to approve the vacation of Kimball Street south of downtown as part of development in that area. You may not have known (I didn't) that Kimball Street was named for Eliza Kimball Smith, husband of Reeder Smith, a founder of Lawrence University.

In an effort to keep names like this from being lost to history, the Department of Public Works, Alderperson Christine Williams and Gwen Sargeant of the Appleton Historical Society have worked together to propose 22 new names for alleys around the city with the stated goal of "promoting safety, consistency, and could activate these alleys by giving them a sense of place."

A full list of the 22 proposed new names and their locations can be seen in the attachment at this link. 

Safety & Licensing Committee, Wednesday, 5:30 pm

Finally, this week the Safety & Licensing Committee will get a long-awaited opportunity to have a discussion on the city's ambulance service. 

The committee agenda includes a presentation from Nick Romenesko of Gold Cross Ambulance on their service throughout the Fox Valley and their response times in emergencies in the city. As I mentioned above, I've been on the Safety & Licensing Committee for six years now and this is the first time I recall seeing a presentation like this or having the opportunity to discuss our public/private partnership for emergency medical services.

PLEASE NOTE: The original version of the agenda for this meeting included Alderman William Siebers' resolution regarding the city's truancy ordinance, but that item has been moved back to our May 8 meeting to allow appropriate time for discussion and questions on this presentation.

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 April 8

Before I get to the update today, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who supported me in seeking a fourth term on the Appleton Common Council. I'm honored to have the opportunity to continue representing District 13, and to have received nearly 200 votes more than I did in my last contested race.

This is something of a transitional week for the Appleton Common Council: Our new alderpersons will be sworn in and a new council year will start next week, but this week the old council's committees meet one last time. Six of this week's eleven meetings have been cancelled, but here are some of the highlights from the meetings that will happen:

Municipal Services, Monday, 4:30 pm
City Plan Commission, Tuesday, 4:00 pm

Last week's council agenda included a pair of items related to the city's plan to vacate a small portion of Kimball St, a small street south of Lawrence Street on the "Bluff Site," as part of the redevelopment of that area with the new construction of Oneida Street and the construction of the US Venture building. The portions of the street to be vacated are all west of the intersection of Kimball and Allen Streets.

Council has since been made aware of the historical significance of the Kimball name and asked to do something to ensure it is preserved, leading to the items being referred back to their respective committees. This week I anticipate the Municipal Services Committee will hear more about options to preserve the history of the Kimball name.

The Municipal Services Committee will also be asked to make a recommendation on a minor parking change along Ashbury Drive near North High School. Last year staff received a complaint that parking during school days along Ashbury near Mya Drive had gotten out of hand and was starting to limit visibility at that intersection. Staff initiated a six month trial of parking restrictions in that area and received no complaints, so they're recommending the changes become permanent.

The changes would create a "No Parking" zone from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm on school days along the south side of Ashbury over a 170-foot stretch surrounding the intersection of Ashbury and Mya.

Finally, the Municipal Services Committee is also expected to receive an update on the implementation of the Railroad Quiet Zone. I don't have any further information on this topic at this time but would encourage anyone interested in that process to watch the video of the meeting once it's posted to learn more about what's going on.

Board of Health, Wednesday, 7 am

The Board of Health will meet on Wednesday to take up two items I'll be watching.

The first is one we've discussed before: Last month the Board voted to recommend approval of a resolution calling for the city to add e-cigarettes to its smoking ordinance, banning their use inside businesses and other public buildings. After much public input and discussion, in March Council approved the resolution with an amendment that was intended to make an exemption for vape shops that allow customers to sample products within their place of business.

That item was approved as amended, but an issue later came up with the amendment language that would have left a loophole for any business that checks ID at the door and only allows adults inside to allow sampling of e-cigarettes. Given that issue, the item was brought up for reconsideration at council on Wednesday and eventually referred back to committee.

Finally, the Board of Health will also be asked to consider a request for a noise variance for Fox River House for their 2019 outdoor music schedule. These requests have been controversial in the past as FRH is located within the city's Central Business District but on the edge of a residential neighborhood, creating some conflict between the two neighboring uses.

In the interest of compromise, Fox River House's variance request has gotten smaller every year I've been on council and this year is down to just 17 weekends, Fridays and Saturdays only, with many of the Saturday shows to be scheduled in the afternoon. I hope the Board and Council will recognize the volume to which FRH has already scaled back their outdoor music and approve this variance without asking for further concessions.

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 April 1

First and foremost, I'll open today with one final reminder that the State of Wisconsin's spring elections are this week. There is a statewide race on the ballot for the Supreme Court, three candidates running for two spots on the Appleton School Board and contested elections for four seats on the Appleton Common Council, including mine.

If you live in District 13, your polling location is Celebration Ministry Center (aka Faith Lutheran Church), located at the corner of Evergreen and Providence. If you live anywhere else in the state of Wisconsin you can find your polling place at myvote.wi.gov. Polls will be open from 7 am-8 pm.

It's been an honor and a privilege to serve on council these last six years, and tomorrow I'll be back on the ballot seeking a fourth term. I'd be honored to have your support to remain in office and continue these updates.

With that said, regardless of what happens on Tuesday the common council will hold its regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday night. Here are updates on some items we discussed last week:

Special Event Policy

Last week the Finance Committee voted 3-1 to recommend denial of a resolution calling for the city to rewrite its Special Event Policy with the goal of recouping more expenses incurred by the city's various departments related to those events.

I voted against the resolution for a pair of reasons:

• First, it was repetitive of work that has been done very recently. The current policy was adopted in 2017, and fees for special events were increased at that time. That process took several months, involved feedback from many city departments and stakeholder organizations and largely took into consideration the factors cited in this resolution. It's my belief that reopening that process would require repeating a lot of that work but is unlikely to lead to any major change in the policy.
• I think, on the whole, the good these special events do for the community outweighs any small benefit we could bring back by raising their fees for the second time in three years. 

Truancy Ordinance

Last week the Safety & Licensing Committee also voted 3-2 to recommend denial of a resolution by Alderman William Siebers calling for the city to repeal our ordinance related to truancy.

There's a lot of emotion and concern tied up in this discussion as it relates to the publicly reported concerns about the former truancy court practices, a procedure that has since been discontinued. Given those concerns, I understand the desire for the city to take action to ensure that those issues will not resurface.

I voted against this resolution, however, because I do not feel like repealing the truancy ordinance would be a positive step in reforming the process. As the ordinance is written right now the Appleton Police Department (in conjunction with the school district) has the authority to cite students for truancy but rarely does so (recent data shows about 100 citations written per year as compared to over 700 cases of habitual truancy). Truancy citations are issued as a last resort, but other options are pursued first to help us meet the end goal of keeping students in school.

If this ordinance were to be repealed, the Police Department would no longer have the opportunity to prosecute truancy as an ordinance violation. Instead, truancy offenses would be prosecuted as misdemeanors under state statute, a process which takes much longer to resolve and could result in a student ending up with a misdemeanor conviction on their record.

As I said above, I understand the impetus to take some action in response to what we've heard about truancy court in recent months. This proposal, however, would limit our ability to get truant students back in school and could lead to young people with increasingly serious criminal records. I don't think this resolution is the solution we're looking for.

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.