The Notes: Week of December 6 - December 10, 2021

Well, here we are with more shovel-able snow on a Sunday, Neighbors.  Thanks for taking a minute or two to stop in and read about the week ahead in city government! 

I can't say for certain, but it's possible that last week's full council meeting set a speed record for fastest meeting ever.  Now we look ahead to a more robust Committee Week full of some meetings with longer agendas.  The schedule and agenda notes are as follows:

Monday, 12/06/2021

• Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm: This committee will be revisiting the municipal code for street food vendors in the downtown central business district.  This item was first recommended for approval by this committee on 11/08/2021 but was referred by the full council back to this committee for further discussion.  It remains to be heard what further discussion is required here but I have no issue with the city staff's proposal for amending the municipal code to allow a maximum of eight street vendor licenses in this business district and remove code language that set a rather arbitrary 50-foot-from-a-brick-and-mortar-restaurant-entrance distance requirement.  Do you have any thoughts on this?  Let me know! 
  
  The members of this committee will also hear about and discuss the proposal for a downtown street construction project which was presented as an informational item two weeks ago.  This is a very extensive and expensive project.  I am happy to see some real progress being made on street reconstruction in this area as it is sorely needed.  My only concern is that we keep to the budgeted figures on this project so I will likely sit in on this portion of the committee meeting to see what is discussed in that regard.  
  
  Also on tap for discussion by this committee are the Department of Public Works (DPW) revised fee schedule changes, city policy, and municipal code changes (due to the recent DPW operational changes for bulky item pickup/leaf and brush collection), the request to award a contract renewal for the maintenance of the venting system on the closed city landfill (for $218,393), a permanent street occupancy permit request for an AT&T control box on Henry Street, and the approval of a sole source purchase request for traffic control equipment for the city. 
  
  
• Finance Committee - 5:30pm:  In a rare move, the finance committee has cancelled this week's meeting.  It should be a full agenda for them two weeks from now!
  
  
• Parks and Recreation Committee - 6:30pm:  It's less of a rarity, but this committee's meeting is also cancelled for this week. 
  

Tuesday, 12/07/2021

• Fox Cities Transit Commission - 3pm: The commission will review and approve payments for September and October; their agency safety plan annual updates; the Valley Transit drug and alcohol policy; contracts with Winnebago, Outagamie, and Calumet Counties for specialized transport services (Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-related); a contract with Neenah/Fox Crossing for Dial-a-Ride services; and a federal-aid-related contract for senior and disabled transit services. 
  
  
• Utilities Committee - 5pm: In a doubtless thriller of a meeting, the utilities committee members will discuss the approval of municipal code changes related to lead water service pipe replacement in the city and three contracts for stormwater consulting services.

Wednesday, 12/08/2021

•  Board of Health - 7am:  Board of Health members get the chance to sleep in Wednesday as their bright-and-early meeting has been cancelled for this week. 
  
  
• Appleton Redevelopment Authority - 9am: Members of this committee also get a break from their morning meeting this week with a cancellation. 
  
  
• City Plan Commission - 3:30pm:  No sleeping in (ha!) for the mayor and his city plan commission members this week as their agenda includes the revisit of a held item that involves all sorts of city commissions, committees, and departments: the request for a Special Use Permit for a paint/craft studio (which hopes to sell alcohol to crafters) at 550 N Morrison Street.  The commission will debate granting this permit (which is a step required for the alcohol sales portion of this business venture) with further information on the project and, perhaps, the in-person input of the applicant (Timasha Thornton) who, to this point, has not attended any meetings regarding her requests because (I believe) she was unaware that she could do so.  This item was held at the last commission meeting because the commissioners felt that too little information was originally presented and there remained too many unanswered questions.  Hopefully, those questions can be answered and this constituent/business owner might be able to proceed with her business dream.  (More on this project follows...)
  
  
• Safety and Licensing Committee - 5:30pm: The applicant for the Special Use Permit noted above has also submitted applications to the Safety and Licensing Committee for a two types of liquor licenses -- one for beer/liquor sales that can be removed from the premises (the type of license a gas station convenience store might have for beer sales) and another for beer sales on premises (the type that a sit-down restaurant might have).  Now that we have further information on the business model that this owner/applicant is intending to build, it is my belief and opinion that the first one (Class "A"/"Class A") should be denied as the applicant should have no need to sell beer/liquor that patrons would be taking with them as they leave.  I believe that the second liquor license (Class "B" beer license) is what this applicant needs to proceed with her dream to sell beer to crafters/painters while they create art at this studio.  Since this is a business model that has worked at other locations in the City of Appleton, I see no issue with the granting of this license. We shall see what other information in this regard is presented at this meeting.
  
  Also on this committee's agenda are are a few other liquor license applications/amendments for approval, some municipal code revisions for the city's alcohol license demerit points system, and the request for a mass-renewal of the city's secondhand article/jewelry and pawnshop licenses for 2022.  The meeting will conclude with directors' reports from the police chief, fire chief, and city clerk.
  
  
• Human Resources and Information Technologies Committee - 6:30pm:  An introduction of the city's newly hired IT Director, Corey Popp, will start off this last committee meeting for the week. To follow will be the discussion and potential approvals of across-the-board salary updates for city staff for 2022.  There is a request for the revision of the 2.5% across-the-board merit increase policy presented in the just-approved budget: "...Employees with an inconsistent (performance) rating would not be eligible for the across-the-board adjustment until the rating is brought up to a consistent level and maintained for a period of at least 90 days."  I believe this to be a wise policy decision which can only help incentivize suboptimal city employees to better serve our city.  This meeting will wrap up with requests for a couple of modest city employee policy updates/revisions.      
  

And that's all that's on tap this week, folks.  Please let me know if you have any comments, questions, or concerns about the above items or anything else related to city government.  I'm always happy to hear from you!  

Have a great week, neighbors...  And if the weather allows this week, I hope you get a chance to enjoy some of the beautiful holiday lights in the city and the surrounding areas.  I can personally attest that it will put give you the warm holiday fuzzies!