Appleton Common Council Update for the Week of 11/2

 Before I get to the council update, a quick plea: It's city budget season and an election week simultaneously this week, with both processes complicated by the ongoing pandemic and northeast Wisconsin's elevated risks. Please be patient if you need to contact city staff this week. Whether it's about the election, the budget or something else entirely, please be aware that our folks downtown and throughout the city have a lot of irons in the fire right now. We have an incredible team doing their best to keep everything moving in the right direction, but despite their long hours and dedication it's still going to be a challenge to keep up for a little while. Please take that into account if you try to contact us.

With that said, work on the 2021 budget continues this week with a public hearing on Wednesday night. This year the public hearing will look a little different from past years: We're strongly encouraging anyone who wants to speak on the budget to participate remotely as we only have room for 14 attendees (including media) to safely social distance within the council chambers. If you would like to speak remotely, please follow the directions on this page to sign up to participate.

The Finance Committee completed our all-day review session for the 2021 Budget on Saturday with most of council participating. As part of that discussion I proposed three amendments:

• The committee voted 3-1 to amend the budget to remove a proposed $100,000 interest-free general fund advance to the Reid Golf Course enterprise fund. This money would have helped finance the repaving of the golf course's parking lot and would be in addition to $140,000 the course still owes on a general fund advance from 2002.
• Additionally, the committee voted 3-1 to amend the budget to use that $100,000 in savings to reduce our 2021 borrowing for street reconstruction. While the impact is relatively small, this will preserve a little of our borrowing capacity and slightly lower the tax levy for debt service.
• Finally, an amendment failed calling for the city to expand the money available to our Community and Economic Development Department for the repurchase of undeveloped industrial park lots. The budget allocates $200,000 for this purpose but I asked for that to be expanded to $556,700 to allow for the potential repurchase of six properties that have been purchased but left vacant in violation of the covenants within the Northeast Business Park. The amendment failed on a 2-2 vote. 

I still think it is important for the city to pursue opportunities to reacquire these properties, many of which have been purchased but undeveloped in violation of covenants for a decade or more, to help encourage development in this area.

The public hearing will start at 6 pm and is the only budget-related item on this week's agenda. The council's next action on the budget will be on Wednesday, November 11 when we make final amendments and adopt the final budget.

The ongoing pandemic makes it increasingly difficult for us to safely allow large groups to participate in our governmental meetings, making it all the more valuable to have the tools for residents to contact alderpersons online and view our meetings remotely. If you have thoughts on these or any other action items on our agendas this week I would encourage you to use those links to remain engaged and active in the safest way possible.

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.