The Notes: Week of April 18 - April 22, 2022

A happy Easter Sunday to you and yours, neighbors!  Thanks for taking a little of your time to join me here for a quick synopsis of what's to come this Full Council Week in City of Appleton government.

This week starts a term for a "new council" with newly voted-in members.  April's election for the even-numbered districts in the city led to the reelection of some past council members and the election of some new faces to the common council.  The meat of the common council week begins on Tuesday with a swearing-in ceremony for all of the aldermen of even-numbered districts.  But before then, there are a few other meetings scheduled:

Monday, 04/18/2022 

The Board of Zoning Appeals will meet at 7pm on Monday evening.  They will take up one item which was held at their last meeting -- a variance request to place a dumpster on the south property line of 115 E Washington Street in downtown Appleton.  The application for this variance provides more information on this should you be interested in why the owners/developers are making this request. 

Tuesday, 04/19/2022

Before the swearing-in ceremony mentioned above, the Finance Committee will meet at 4:30pm.  They will discuss a request for the funds to move ahead with the early purchase of a new fire truck for the city (as approved last week in the CEA Review Committee and Safety and Licensing Committee meetings).  

The Library Board will meet at 4:45pm and discuss the March 2022 bill register and vote on a carryover of funds from the 2021 budget into 2022 to cover some costs associated with temporary library lease expenditures and some Reach Out and Read program expenses.

Then, at 5:15pm in Houdini Plaza (weather permitting), the even-numbered district common council members will be sworn in for their 2022-2024 term.  

WHAT: Swearing in of recently elected alderpersons    

  

WHEN: Tuesday, April 19 at 5:15 p.m.   

  

WHERE: Houdini Plaza  

   100 W. Lawrence St.  

   Appleton, WI 54911   

  

AGENDA:   

5:15 p.m. Welcome and Pledge of Allegiance – Mayor Woodford   

5:25 p.m.  Invocation – Ald. Sheri Hartzheim  

5:30 p.m.  Oaths of Office – City Clerk Kami Lynch   

5:45 p.m. Closing Remarks – Mayor Woodford   

  

OTHER DETAILS: The ceremony will be live streamed at www.facebook.com/appletoncityhall.  

Following that ceremony, the full Common Council will convene in council chambers (6th Floor of City Hall) at 6pm for and Information Organizational Meeting.  This type of meeting is conducted by a "new council" each year to discuss proposed amendments to the rules for the city's common council.  The common council follows Roberts Rules of Order but also have a separate set of rules by which we operate.  Those rules include, generally (and in addition to Roberts Rules), how meetings are conducted, how council members may participate in those meetings, and how committees conduct business.  Members will use this informal meeting to discuss any changes proposed by members and propose amendments not yet dreamed up by members.  Since it's "informal," no rules will be decided and voted upon at this meeting... but the next day....

Wednesday, 04/20/2022

...The full Common Council will meet at 6pm for a Formal Organizational Meeting.  Here, they will rehash and finally vote upon any rules changes proposed the previous night and recommit to the Code of Conduct for common council members.  The council will also be assigned to committees and elect a council president and council vice president.  Once the organizational business of the council is completed, the full council will adjourn... and then reconvene for...

... The first full Common Council meeting of the 2022-23 council at 7pm.  The meeting will kick off with the mayor's request for the new council to approve the reappointments of some members of city boards and commission.  The meeting will continue with discussion and requests for approval of all items passed through committee meetings (as mentioned in last week's blog post).  

Of note are the pending approvals of the intergovernmental agreements between Outagamie County and the City of Appleton for the reconstruction projects on CTH JJ (Lightning Drive to Cherryvale Avenue) and CTH E and CTH EE (CTH JJ to Applehill Boulevard).  Both of these were approved in the Municipal Services Committee meeting last week and, as promised, I did request information on the timeline for these projects.  As I suspected, there really is not any further information on these projects as yet.  These intergovernmental agreements are needed for the county and city to move forward with funding requests from the state and federal governments for the projects.  Until we know more about what funding will be available, we will not know of a timeline.

Also of note is the report from the Safety and Licensing Committee to the Common Council requesting the revocation of the liquor licenses of Core's Lounge at 1350 W College Avenue.  The committee found that no new evidence was presented by the owner of Core's to offset the police reports, convictions, and other findings of fact which led the city's police department to requesting this revocation.  The full common council must agree and approve this report from the committee in order for the actual liquor license revocation to take place.  

All else on the agenda is quite run-of-the-mill (albeit important!) city government business.  I look forward to working with the newly elected council members and those who will continue to serve with me through this coming council year.

If you should have any questions or concerns about any of the items noted above or if you have any other items of local government concern or if you are just plain interested in the workings of city government, please always feel free to contact me.  I am always interested and happy to hear from you!

Until next week, please have a wonderful week.  I hope for sunnier days for us and wish you all the most peaceful and blessed Easter season!