Common Council Update for the week of November 4

Budget season continues for the Appleton Common Council, and our schedule continues to shift a bit to accommodate deliberations and public comment on our single most important action of the year. In addition to this week's regularly scheduled council meeting, we also have some committee business to take care of:

Community and Economic Development Committee (special meeting), Tuesday, 4:30 pm

The Community Development Block Grant process is underway for the 2020 program year, with an advisory committee meeting last week to discuss and evaluate proposals for an estimated $577,214 in available federal grant dollars.

This year, in addition to those dollars the advisory committee was also asked to make recommendations for $200,000 in available funding from an Affordable Housing Initiative budgeted in a prior year. The advisory committee's recommendations were as follows:

• A total of just over $275,000 to fund city or city-related programs that serve low to moderate income populations and meet CDBG guidelines, such as the city's Homeowner Rehabilitation Loan Program, Fair Housing Services, the Appleton Housing Authority, the Appleton Police Department's Summer of Service program and the city's administrative costs.
• $125,000 for Greater Fox Cities Habitat for Humanity to assist in the purchase of properties for renovation or new construction of affordable housing.
• $94,000 for Rebuilding Together Fox Cities to assist in the rehabilitation of homes in the West Appleton neighborhood, their targeted neighborhood for 2020.
• $75,000 for Pillars, Inc. Adult & Family Shelter to put toward a project to replace a failing elevator in their facility.
• $62,334 for St. Bernadette/NAMI Fox Valley to replace windows at their Iris Place facility.
• $56,100 for The Mooring Programs for needed repairs on their main facility and six homes for clients recovering from substance abuse issues.
• $14,530.94 for LEAVEN (the max available due to a federal cap on grant money spent for "Public Service" activities) to assist their ongoing work.

This year for the second time I was a participant on the advisory committee and I can tell you it was an extremely challenging decision to choose between many worthy applicants in our community and attempt to distribute these dollars in a way that will lead to a timely and impactful application in our community. In the end, however, I feel we arrived at the right decision and I'll be supporting our recommendation at committee this week.

In addition, this week's CEDC agenda includes an item of local interest to District 13: On Tuesday the committee will be asked to approve a variance request for covenants in the city's Northeast Business Park to allow the former Shopko Express site at the corner of Ballard and Evergreen to be redeveloped as a restaurant. I spoke to the property's potential developer a few weeks ago and while no specific plans or tenants had been identified at that time, I'm excited about the possibility to expand dining options north of Highway 41 while also turning a vacant space back into an asset to our community.

Budget Public Hearing, Wednesday, 6 pm

On Saturday all 15 council members were present for the Finance Committee's annual "Budget Saturday" meeting and spent almost nine hours on a department-by-department review of the mayor's proposed 2020 budget. At that time a few minor amendments were proposed and added to the budget, including funding for maintenance of the city's storm warning sirens, changes to expected 2020 projects at the Wastewater Treatment Facility and the addition of revenue expected to help replace trees lost in this summer's major storm event.

This week council will meet to hold a public hearing on the 2020 budget before our regularly scheduled meeting, and we welcome members of the public to share their thoughts on the budget as we continue through the process. No official action will be taken on the budget at this meeting. 

From here, the process continues with proposed amendments due to the Finance Department by noon on Thursday and the official budget adoption on Wednesday, November 13.

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.