Common Council Update for the week of January 12

Before I get started with this week's update a quick note on our council schedule, which has been shuffled a bit due to the holidays:

Council normally meets on the first and third Wednesdays of the month but did not meet on January 1, instead opting to push our January committee and council meetings back a week. Our boards and commissions are largely meeting on their regular schedule, however, which will leave us out of sync a bit for forwarding recommendations to council. This will only last a few weeks, as our schedule is back to normal in February.

As such, this week would normally be a council week but is instead a partial committee week. Here are some of the highlights:

Municipal Services Committee, Monday, 4:30 pm

This committee meeting has a loaded agenda, including some items we've discussed before:

• The committee will again be asked to make a recommendation regarding "The Collective" sculpture along College Avenue. I continue to be opposed to removing the statue: I recognize that not everyone enjoys this specific piece of art but I don't feel that's a good enough reason to force its removal. Furthermore, it's a temporary installation and will be gone in a year and a half anyway.
• The committee will also get another opportunity to discuss a resolution calling for some or all of the vacant space behind the City Center mall to be turned into surface parking. While I recognize the goal the resolution's author was trying to achieve, I don't think surface parking is the best use of these parcels and even a temporary lot will add another challenge to efforts to redevelop these spaces and get them back on the tax rolls.
• For the first time the committee will be asked to consider a policy allowing the city to demolish nuisance properties provided they meet criteria related to their state of disrepair and inaction by their owner. This furthers a discussion that came up during 2020 budget deliberations last November and would allow staff to proceed with the removal of a small number of properties that have become a safety risk.

Finance Committee, Monday, 5:30 pm

In among a relatively large collection of collection of relatively routine items are a pair of items I wanted to highlight: Staff recommendations to reject bids for a pair of related projects at the Wastewater Treatment Plant. 

As the memo attached to the item notes, the city recently received and opened bids for about $4.4 million in budgeted work (between two projects) at the treatment plant but found in both cases that the low bid was above the budgeted amount. This happens sometimes and usually leads staff to discuss and make one of two recommendations:

1. Find available money elsewhere in the budget to cover the shortfall, often from another project that came in under estimates, or
2. Reject the bids and work to either restructure the project or resubmit it for bids at a more favorable time.

In this case staff and our consulting engineers arrived at the conclusion that it would be best to pursue the latter option and rebid the project later.

Human Resources, Wednesday, 6:30 pm

At our council meeting last week alderpersons Patti Coenen and Cathy Spears co-submitted a resolution to open a discussion about city government structure and possibilities for change in the future. Specifically, their resolution calls for the city to consider creating a city administrator position "in lieu of or in addition to a mayor."

This discussion has come up over the years, including briefly four years ago when the position was last up for election. It's too late for this discussion to change much in the short term: Council has already set the next mayor's salary for their four-year term beginning this April, so any major changes to the position at this point could not include a change in salary. 

With that said, more than half of the members of council have changed over since the last time we had this conversation so at bare minimum it's likely time for a review.

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.

Common Council Update for the Week of December 16

Before I get started today, a quick scheduling update: Next week is a committee week for the Appleton Common Council but most of the committee meetings will likely be canceled due to the holidays. We would normally have a council meeting on the first Wednesday in January but that also has been moved back so as to avoid meeting on New Year's Day. As such, after this Wednesday the next scheduled meeting of the Appleton Common Council will be on Wednesday, January 8.

With that out of the way, all I have this week are updates on items from last week's committee agendas:

• Last week the Municipal Services Committee heard extensive public comment and elected to hold their action item regarding the installation of "The Collective" sculpture near the west end of the College Avenue bridge. That item will return to their agenda when they next meet on January 13.
• The Municipal Services Committee also held a resolution calling for the former Conway Hotel site on Washington Street to be converted into a surface level parking lot. The city and stakeholders continue to work to determine if adding parking is feasible and if adding said parking would impact the city's ability to have those parcels redeveloped. This item will also be on their January 13 agenda.
• Last week the City Plan Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of a Special Use Permit for a new ThedaCare facility near their existing Encircle Health facility. The permit would allow them to build a facility up to 95 feet high (the current limit is 60 feet). This item will be on our council agenda this week.
• Finally, the Board of Health received a great deal of public input regarding a resolution calling for the city to ban "conversion therapy." Because of the volume of public participation received and time constraints, the Board was unable to discuss the issue among themselves on Wednesday morning and held the item. This item will be back on the Board's agenda for their January 8 meeting. It is my understanding that public participation will be closed for this meeting, giving the board time to discuss and arrive at a recommendation.

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.

Common Council update for the week of December 9

After a few quiet weeks, the Appleton Common Council has a busy week of committee meetings planned. Here are some of the highlights:

Municipal Services Committee, Monday, 4:30 pm

This committee agenda features a pair of items that should generate some discussion:

First, the committee is expected to reopen discussion on an art installation near the west end of the College Avenue bridge named "The Collective." This installation was approved by council several weeks ago but neighbors have asked for the approval to be reconsidered. You can see more about the meeting here.

The committee will also discuss a proposal to turn the former Conway Hotel site on Washington Street into surface parking. This process has taken several twists and turns and I'm not sure it will be resolved today: The committee will learn the latest on property negotiations in closed session, but may or may not have all the information necessary to make a recommendation.

City Plan Commission, Tuesday, 4 pm

It's been about a month since ThedaCare announced plans for a $144 million project to build a new specialty hospital near their Encircle Health site along Highway 41 and it will come up for discussion this week at the City Plan Commission, where their application for a Special Use Permit will be up for a recommendation for the first time.

The permit calls for a medical office building not to exceed 95 feet in height, which is 35 feet higher than Appleton's ordinances allow without a variance. I do not expect the approval to be controversial.

Board of Health, Wednesday, 7 am

Wednesday morning will feature the Board of Health's second opportunity to discuss and first opportunity to make a recommendation on a resolution banning what is often referred to as "Conversion Therapy" in the city of Appleton.

Conversion therapy is the practice of trying to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. It's banned in eighteen states (Utah is about to become the 19th), not backed by science and has been proven harmful to the psychological wellbeing of participants.

Debate on this topic is likely to be heated, but to me the decision is simple: Appleton should follow the lead of well more than a dozen states and draw a firm line when it comes to pseudoscience and protecting the wellbeing of young people in our community.

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.

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.

Common Council Update for Week of October 28

The week of the fifth Wednesday of the month is normally an off week for the Appleton Common Council, but this week we'll hold one of the most important meetings of the year:

Finance Committee, Saturday, 8 am

The city's all-day review session for the 2020 budget is scheduled for this Saturday from 8 am until (typically) sometime in the late afternoon. At this meeting we'll have an opportunity to go department by department through the budget for the year ahead and members of the Finance Committee will have their first opportunity to propose amendments.

This year I wrapped up my initial review of the budget on October 21 and pre-submitted 71 questions to the mayor, directors and department heads. This week I'll work my way through those responses and prepare any follow-up questions I need to ask on Saturday.

From there, the budget schedule is as follows:

• Wednesday, November 6, 6 pm - The 2020 Budget Public Hearing
• Thursday, November 7 - Proposed budget amendments due to Finance Department
• Wednesday, November 13, 6 pm - 2020 Budget final deliberations and adoption.

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.

Common Council update for week of October 14

It's a busy time of year for the Appleton Common Council. In addition to our regular meeting schedule (and we have special committee meetings at 6:30 and 6:45 before a full council meeting this Wednesday at 7), here's what I'm working on:

2020 Budget Review

Two weeks ago members of the Common Council received our copies of the city's 2020 budget, a 675-page document outlining plans for our general fund, capital, utility and enterprise fund plans for the year ahead. I'm about halfway through my review at this point. Here's the schedule of upcoming budget-related events:

• Over the next few weeks individual departments' budgets will be on the agenda as informational items at their committees of jurisdiction for questions and discussion.
• The Finance Committee will meet all day on Saturday, November 2 to go department by department through the budget to make recommendations to the full council.
• On Wednesday, November 6 at 6 pm council will hold a public hearing on the budget to allow members of the public to speak on it.
• On Wednesday, November 13 council will make final decisions on any proposed budget amendments and adopt the final document.

Board of Review

This year for the first time I am a member of the city's Board of Review, the body tasked with deciding any appeals related to this year's property assessments. The board is scheduled to meet all day on Thursday and on Friday if necessary, and many members (including me) also participated in a recent half-day training to understand the rules and procedures.

Community Development Block Grants

Once I've completed my review of the budget I'll move over to reviewing hundreds of pages of documents submitted as part of applications for the non-governmental portion of the city's Community Development Block Grant funds. The Advisory Committee tasked with recommending a distribution of those funds will meet  for a half day on Tuesday, October 29 to compare notes on applications and put together a plan that meets the federal guidelines for distribution of these funds.

That recommendation will come before the Community and Economic Development Committee and full council in November.

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 September 9

Before we get to this week's meetings, a pair of notes:

The special election to fill council vacancies in District 6 and 15 is happening tomorrow (Tuesday, September 10). The City Clerk's website has more information on polling locations and district maps to help you if needed.

Also, later this week residential property owners should expect a letter from the city about our citywide residential property re-evaluation. Property values across the city have gone up significantly since the last re-evaluation five years ago, so property owners should expect a significant increase in the assessed value of their properties. This isn't a "price increase," it's an effort to ensure that the assessed value of properties matches the actual value of properties, and it's required by state statute.

It's important to note that a large increase in property values doesn't necessarily mean a large increase in property taxes. The city's Communications Coordinator put together a graphic you might find helpful: https://www.appleton.org/Home/Components/News/News/20860/18?backlist=%2f

Even though property values are going up significantly here in Appleton, our tax levy is still limited by state statute and this year it cannot grow more than 1.35%. So, property values going up doesn't mean we're collecting significantly higher taxes.

Finally, just to put the re-evaluation into context: The Assessor's office recently supplied me with a list of 63 residential properties in the 13th District that were sold in 2018. The assessed value of those properties was 84% of their sale price, on average. Only four of them sold for less than their assessed value. This is why we re-evaluate, to try to get the assessed value of properties and their actual value as close as possible and ensure a property tax system that's as fair as it can possibly be.

In addition to those two things, it's a relatively busy committee week for the Appleton Common Council. Here are some items of note:

Finance Committee, Monday, 5:30 pm

One of the big headlines from last week's Common Council meeting related to the US Venture project as the mayor and several stakeholders in the project presented some of the first renderings and proposed potential financing schedules for the underground parking ramp necessary to make the development possible.

Like many other alderpersons, I've received a fair amount of feedback from that discussion and most, if not all of it has been related to the financial element. Our development agreement with US Venture called for both parties to work together to keep the cost of the ramp near $25 million, but the city's new projected contribution is $35 million. This number has changed significantly due to some factors outside our control (inflation, rising and unpredictable construction costs), but also due to some significant design changes and challenges during the process.

I won't comment on ongoing negotiations regarding this project, but I will say I'm disappointed with where we've found ourselves here. One of the key points of emphasis for this project has been that it has to "cash flow" to make sense for the city, meaning the gains from the project need to be able to cover the expenses without impacting the taxpayers. The current potential financing models all include both a loan (sometimes an interest-free loan) from the general fund and a shifting of funds owed to the parking utility to make this work, which does not meet my definition of "cash flow."

Tonight the Finance Committee has an information item on their agenda to allow for more questions on the information we learned last week. No official action is expected at this meeting, and no final action on this item is scheduled at this time. This is just another opportunity for council to gather information on this item to help inform future decisions. 

Parks and Recreation Committee, Monday, 6:30 pm (or following the conclusion of Finance)

Significant efforts to plan for the future of parks and park programming in the city are expected to take a step forward this week as the Parks and Recreation Committee will be asked to make a recommendation on a Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan for 2019-23. The last time the city approved such a plan was in 2009.

The full text of the new plan is available via attachment #4 at this link and it's quite the document: The PDF is 285 pages long and includes an evaluation of all existing parks, proposed land acquisition for future parks and recommendations for the future. This document lays the groundwork for future councils to consider opportunities to continue to improve park and recreational offerings in our community.

Some highlights from the document:

• Appleton has about eight acres of green space for every 1000 residents. This is within the NRPA standard of 7-10 acres per 1000 residents but falls well below the regional average of 20.26 (page 51).
• A portion of District 13 falls in an area identified as lacking a park: The neighborhoods north of Wisconsin Avenue, south of Northland Avenue and between Ballard Road and Meade Street. (Page 52)
• Starting on Page 83 the document identifies short, medium and long term needs for each city park with a projected development cost. Parks with short term needs included Alicia, Derks, Ellen Kort Peace Park, Green Meadows, Highview, Hoover, Linwood, Lutz, Mead, Peabody, Providence, Schaefer, Summit, Veterans, Vulcan Heritage, Woodland, Memorial, Erb, Pierce, Telulah and Houdini Plaza. The projected cost for the short term projects is $23.3 million.

Community and Economic Development Committee, Wednesday, 4:30 pm

The first step in our annual Community Development Block Grant process will come this week as the committee is expected to make a recommendation on the first proposals for a portion of our projected $577,214 in available funding. Block grant funding is available through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and is available to city departments and other organizations who can meet a very strict and specific set of criteria to provide services and improvements to our communities. 

The first step in the process for the committee is to review allocations for city programs. This year those are as follows:

• $77,694 for the Housing Rehabilitation Loan Program
• $75,000 for the Appleton Housing Authority
• $72,051.56 for the Appleton Police Department's "Summer of Service" program
• $50,504 for the city's administrative costs and providion of HUD required Fair Housing Services.

The APD item is a relatively new addition to this list and will allow for the further expansion of a program that has been very successful in our community. Per the staff memo on this topic, "the Summer of Service initiative seeks to engage youth in meaningful, team-based community service projects in order to instill positive attitudes towards education and empower youth to acquire valuable life skills. By teaching teens to work on teams, develop a work ethic, and improve their engagement with others, Summer of Service provides students at risk of not graduating high school an opportunity to stay on track or get back on track to graduating high school."

Assuming this item is approved by committee and council, the next step will be to review applications from outside organizations for the balance of the available funding. Those recommendations should appear before committee sometime in November.

Safety and Licensing, Wednesday, 5:30 pm

Over the last month the Safety and Licensing Committee has had a pair of opportunities to learn and ask questions about a recent development regarding Outagamie County's longstanding warning sirens. Earlier this year the County Board voted to turn maintenance of those facilities over to their 21 municipalities, giving them the option to begin caring for the sirens themselves or lose this important safety measure. 

This has created a variety of concerns from public safety personnel across the region and caused multiple local municipalities to ask the county to reconsider this action and consider funding the maintenance of these sirens out of revenue from their new sales tax increase. A resolution recently passed in the City of Kaukauna and last week I introduced a resolution that closely mirrors it in Appleton.

The full text of the resolution reads as follows:

Whereas in early 2018 Outagamie County approached municipalities in the county to discuss transferring maintenance, ownership and replacement of outdoor warning systems as of January 1, 2020; and  

Whereas Outagamie County has adopted County Board Resolution 21-2018-2019 outlining the position of turning over these essential emergency management functions to local municipalities and the county has asked each municipality to identify the future of each local outdoor warning system; and  

Whereas while there is no single medium of communication that can reach all residents at all times, outdoor warning sirens have historically been a cost effective warning system and could easily be coupled with other means of communication to create a more robust and effective system; and  

Whereas emerging technologies and weather radios are great supplemental tools, but the sirens remain a vital component for some of our city's most vulnerable residents; and  

Whereas communities throughout the Midwest continue to rely on and invest in sirens as one tool enabling public agencies to notify large segments of the public during times of inclement weather, including larger metro areas like Dane County, Wisconsin and Nashville, Tennessee; and  

Whereas the costs to operate, maintain and acquire sirens, when averaged over the life cycle of a siren, is less than $2000 per warning siren annually; and  

Whereas the decision to have 21 municipalities in Outagamie County individually determine if they should utilize a countywide system is an ineffective and inefficient policy that could have severe ramifications for all county residents and visitors to our communities,  

Therefore be it resolved that the City of Appleton requests Outagamie County utilize a portion of the County's new one-half percent sales tax to fund, operate and maintain the Outdoor Warning System for the safety of our residents and visitors.

Given our conversations on this topic during previous meetings, I expect the committee to approve this measure and send it to the Common Council on September 18.

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.