The Notes: Week of October 11 - October 15, 2021

It's Committee Week again, Neighbors.  And there are TEN -- count 'em! -- meetings scheduled for the week.  I'll list them here in chronological order and sum up the highlights as we go along:

Monday, 10/11/2021:

• 3:45pm - Redistricting Committee: This meeting should present an interesting follow-up to the last information that I presented to you as city staff has put a lot more time into the preparation of the wards and districts plan that was agreed upon last by the committee -- Option A.  It seems that once they started digging further into breaking Option A into appropriately sized wards, there was a slight issue overall.  It seems the "ideal population" deviation factor for Option A turns out to be 13.7%.  That's greater than the desired deviation of 10% (explained further here).  Staff then went back to the drawing board and hammered out an Option D for the committee's review as well.  So it looks like the committee will have the option of 1) defying the 10% deviation guideline and forging on with Option A or 2) switching gears to Option D.  Take a look at the newest options and let me know your thoughts.  District 13 is not substantially different between the options.  But some of the central city wards and districts change quite a bit between options.  I plan to attend this meeting to see how the options are discussed and what is ultimately decided.  I find the process of redistricting fascinating thus far.  (Is that weird?  Perhaps.) 
  
  

• 4:30pm - Municipal Services Committee: A tattoo parlor would like to place a picnic table on the College Avenue beautification strip, an injury lawyer would like permission to place signage on the College Avenue skywalk, the developer for the Zuehlke Building would like a street occupancy permit for some fencing around the construction site there, a contractor would like permission for a crane placement in the alley north of College Avenue, a resident would like extended permission to place a dumpster in the street right-of-way on Roosevelt Street, and a roofing company would like permission to place a crane on the corner of Douglas Street and 4th Street.  This committee will debate and decide on these items and then review a few informational items including the updated Bird Scooter report for the city and a proposed change to the organizational chart for the city's Department of Public Works (DPW).  Who knows how long this meeting will take?   
  
  
• 5:30pm - Finance Committee:  This should be an interesting one to watch!  The meeting will start off with a presentation by the mayor regarding the 2022 Executive Budget (which was presented on paper to all council members at the full council meeting last Wednesday).  Of special importance at this committee meeting is the mayor's presentation of his proposal for the use of at least half of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to be granted to Appleton from the federal government (courtesy of Congress and yours and my federal tax dollars).  The mayor proposes the following:
  
  ~ Almost $2,000,000 in reimbursements to the city for "COVID19 response."  This nearly two million dollars is broken out into $900,000 in salaries, $270,000 in fringe benefits, $50,000 in "miscellaneous supplies," $300,000 in medical/lab supplies, $50,000 in "miscellaneous equipment," and $421,841 in "other contracts and obligations."  
  
  ~ A $1,500,000 reimbursement for lost revenues for the city's parking utility.
  
  ~ $1,000,000 in lead water service abatement and sewer/water infrastructure.
  
  ~ $2,000,000 in "broadband access and information infrastructure" which he proposes to use to "leverage and enhance an existing project, the library renovation and expansion..."  Does this mean that the library project will cost the city $2M less overall due to the usage of these ARPA funds?  Or is this the mayor proposing to increase the overall budget of the library project by $2M?  These questions must be posed to the mayor.  If no one on the committee does, I intend to do so as a follow-up.   
  
  ~ $250,000 in short-term direct community partner support... which will focus on not-for-profit organizations within the city to help with pandemic recovery.  These are what one might term "special interest groups."  While they have much to offer our community, their services do not benefit every single citizen of Appleton... and these funds (in the form of grants) will need to be administered to these groups and the spending of the funds tracked carefully as the city will need to report the spending to the federal government under the ARPA plan.... which leads us to... 
  
  ~ "Consulting and administration support" costs to the tune of $150,000.  This portion of the funding is purportedly to help administer the above-mentioned $250,000 short-term direct community partner support in the form of grant administration and tracking.  
  
  This proposal as it stands would leave the city with $8,000,000 remaining ARPA funds available for the future.  
  
  I'm concerned about this proposal as there are many unanswered questions.  I am also concerned that none of this ARPA funding is currently directed at the estimated $9,920,000 Second Raw Water Line (from Lake Winnebago to the city) which is currently scheduled for the city for 2023.  The city only has ONE raw water line and, should it fail, the city would be without this vital service.  Wouldn't it be prudent and save our city from incurring debt to complete this project which serves ALL citizens of Appleton by saving much of these ARPA funds (ostensibly granted to municipalities for infrastructure projects) to pay for the balance of the second raw water line project in full when the construction occurs?  
  
  I can concur with the reimbursement of the parking utility's lost revenues and the lead water service abatement spending.  But I have issues with the balance of this current proposal from the mayor.  I will be listening to his presentation and will also be asking further questions of him in this regard.  I would support any of my fellow aldermen in challenging this spending plan to allocate it to a project which will benefit each and every citizen in Appleton (the second raw water line project) rather than needlessly incurring debt for said project in 2023. 
  
  The 2022 budget plan also lists a proposed usage of the $8,000,000 balance in ARPA funds to the city.  As you can see, no where is the second raw water line project mentioned.  I see this as a gross oversight and hope that we can discuss moving forward in the direction of benefitting every citizen in Appleton while saving our city from nearly $10M in additional debt. 
  
  
  
  
  There are a few other action items and informational items on this committee's agenda.  But the above is most important at this time.  Please let me know if you'd like any more information on the above and what your thoughts are in this regard.   
  
  
• The Parks and Recreation Committee was scheduled to meet at 5:30pm on Monday.  But the meeting is cancelled for this week due to the committee chair being unavailable.  I very much look forward to their next meeting, though, as the preliminary plans for Lundgaard Park will be presented then.  Stay tuned! 
  
  

Tuesday 10/12/2021:

• 3:00pm - Fox Cities Transit Commission:  As per usual, the commission will look to approve payments for the month.  Then they'll presumably vote to allow a couple small changes to rural service and agency ticket pricing and review the financial and ridership reports for August 2021 and the 2022 proposed budget. 
  
  
• 5:00pm - Utilities Committee: There is a 4% wastewater rate increase on the horizon, folks.  This committee will discuss and decide on the proposed change -- which equates to less than $3 per quarter for the average residential customer. 

Wednesday 10/13/2021:

• 7:00am - Board of Health:  In their bright-and-early meeting, this board will hear a public presentation from Samaritan Counseling regarding a wellness screening program.  Then they will discuss a proposal for some nominal fee (rate) increases for the city's Weights and Measures group and review the city's COVID-19 report.
  
  
• 3:30pm - City Plan Commission:  The commission will review and potentially approve 1) a final plat for a subdivision, 2) a preliminary plat for an extraterritorial subdivision (that is a subdivision in the Town of Grand Chute which is subject to City of Appleton approval since it is in an unincorporated area within three miles of the city), 3) the annexation of a single property to the city (in District 13), and 4) the annexation of the roadway area north of the roundabout at Lightning Drive and CTH JJ for the continuation of Lightning Drive to the north (also in District 13).  
  
  
• 4:30pm - Community and Economic Development Committee:  There's a *Critical Timing* item on the agenda for this committee.  There is apparently an offer on the table for a buyer to purchase four lots in the Southpoint Commerce Park for $38,000/acre (list price = $40,000/acre).  This would be about $1.16M for the lots totaling just over 30 acres.  The agenda mentions that the committee may go into closed session to discuss this.  I can't see why the committee would not approve this... but we shall see what is discussed when the item comes up Wednesday afternoon.    
  
  
• 5:30pm - Safety and Licensing Committee:  This committee will review the "usual suspects" -- a liquor license application, a temporary premises amendment, and two temporary liquor licenses for a couple events.  There will also be a review of the legal services (clerk's) budget and directors' reports from the clerk, police chief, and fire chief. 
  
  
• 6:30pm - Human Resources and Information Technology Committee:  To wrap up the week's meetings, the HR/IT Committee will discuss a request from the Department of Public Works (DPW) to modify their table of organization (TO) to combine two part-time positions (which they are having a hard time filling) into one full-time position with benefits, the assumption being that the benefits available for the full-time position will help with recruiting to fill the position(s).  The Human Resources Director is requesting a no-financial-impact change to that department's TO as well.  The meeting will conclude with a review of the current Recruitment Status Report for the city which still shows that the position of Health Director remains unfilled. 

It's a lot to take in in one week, right?  Let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding the above and I'll be sure to ask the right people the right questions to get you answers.

Until we "meet" again... have a great Committee Week!