The Notes: Week of June 06 - June 10, 2022

Howdy, Neighbors!  Welcome to a rainy start to our first full week of June and another Committee Meetings Week in City of Appleton government.  

Last week was a very interesting one and I'd like to start today's post with a quick rundown of the happenings surrounding the special joint meeting mentioned last week for a resolution that was presented to the council in April.  The Finance and Utilities Committees met together to discuss the movement of $6M of the city's federal funding (American Recovery Plan Act, or ARPA funds) from some loosely defined social issues to a well defined utilities infrastructure need in the city, undersized water mains.  There was even some local media coverage of the discussions in this meeting and the common council meeting that followed where the resolution was taken up for the second time that evening.  

In support of the original resolution, I argue that the role of city government is not in issues such as early childhood development, in housing affordability -- what will $3M thrown at this extremely complex problem get this city? --, in social infrastructure/belonging and mental health -- how and why should city government be dabbling in these issues at a cost of $1M each? --, and arts/culture.  While these issues are no doubt of great importance to the citizens of Appleton, is it not the primary goal of a city government to manage the basic standards of street maintenance, water utility maintenance, sewer structures, and the like?  ARPA funds are, therefore, better spent by this city on water main utility reconstruction to resolve the disparity of water main service sizes between households across the city. 

The mayor is quoted in the news report linked above (and said the same during the discussions of this resolution) that no participants in the ARPA funding listening sessions that the city held last year brought forward infrastructure issues as places in which the city should spend ARPA funds.  While this is technically true, the majority of the few participants in those listening session were there to advocate that the city spend some of its ARPA funding on projects or issues in which those people have a special interest or specialties for which they work.  (For example, there were advocates who work in the field of early childhood development specifically advocating that the city spend ARPA funds on early childhood development.)  Very few of the participants in those community listening sessions had or have intimate knowledge (or even tangential knowledge!) of the city's water utility or city water main breakages or the lower quality of water service to some of the citizens in this city.  Therefore, the likelihood of anyone who attended the ARPA funds listening sessions bringing up this important issue and advocating that it be addressed was virtually nil.  As aldermen, we do have "insider knowledge" of the infrastructure issues in the city and should, therefore, as advocates of our districts to the city, make strong efforts to support this resolution.  

In the end, though, the majority of the council did not.  The resolution was amended to remove the use of the city's ARPA funds to address some of our water utilities issues.  In place of that ARPA funding, the amended resolution which passed called for the city to request that the state of Wisconsin fund the city's water utility needs to the tune of $35M.... Now... we all know that the state government is not going to assign huge sums of money to the thousands of municipalities in this state to pay for infrastructure issues for which these municipalities are responsible.  This is a farcical and ridiculous way to "pass the buck" on paper.  This was a disappointing example of the majority of this city's common council taking difficult issues and, in the end, not making the hard fiscal decisions necessary to keep this city running without eventual excess taxation of its citizens.  

Please let me know your thoughts on this or any other issue in city government that's of concern to you.  

Despite the disappointment in last week's goings on, we move forward into this new week of business in the city.  Members of the following committees will get the week off from their meetings due to cancellations:

• Finance Committee
• Appleton Redevelopment Authority
• Human Resources and Information Technology Committee

The rest of us meet as such:

Monday, 06/06/2022

Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm: The committee members will be asked to approve some parking and other traffic restrictions for the reconstruction of Appleton Street downtown, the restriction of parking on one side of a few blocks of Driscoll Street, and the imposition of a six-month trial of the removal of some parking restrictions on Pacific Street.  There may be a contentious argument over the final action item on the agenda where Appleton Downtown, Inc (ADI) is asking for a waiver to place six dumpsters in the Jones park parking lot without the code-required screening/enclosure.  ADI's hope is that parking dumpsters there (instead of trucking them in and out each week) will save them some money in the collection of garbage that comes from their free summer concert series in Jones Park.  The city's Parks and Recreation and Public Works Departments are both opposed to a waiver but ADI is hoping to make it a one-year thing to get through this summer before something more permanent and code-conforming will be done for garbage in this park.  

A discussion of the possible creation of a Transportation Utility in the city is also on the agenda in the "informational items" portion (thus, no action will be taken on this issue at this meeting).  The committee will also review the latest Bird scooter accident/complaint report:

Parks and Recreation Committee - 6:30pm: There are no action items on the agenda for this committee this week.  The committee will, however, review the latest Reid Golf Course Participation and Revenue Report and hear an update on the Parks and Recreation Department and its projects.

Tuesday, 06/07/2022

Utilities Committee - 4:30pm: There are a couple of contract amendments regarding services at the wastewater treatment plant and stormwater management plan reviews on the docket for this committee.  They will also review the latest water main breaks reports from the water utility.  (Note: From 01/01/2021 to 04/30/2021, there were 50 water main breaks in the city.  Over that same period of time in 2022, that number is up -- 66 breaks this year.  There is a note on the bottom of this report: "In addition to the dollar value of water revenue lost, there is an average cost of $9,000 to repair each water main break (including final restoration) and an average cost of $630 to produce the lost water for each main break." Tell me again why this city should not invest ARPA funds into our water utility.)

Wednesday, 06/08/2022

Board of Health - 7am:  The Board of Health is back at it with their early Wednesday morning meeting... and without any action items on the agenda.  There is a scheduled "introduction of guests" and a review of the latest approved noise variances on the agenda.  But that's not much to get up that early in the morning for! 

City Plan Commission - 3:30pm:  There is one "case" on the docket for this commission to review -- a request for a special use permit for a car wash/self-serve dog wash on East Express Court (off of Kensington Drive near 441 and CE, near Menards). 

Community and Economic Development Committee - 4:30pm:  After a public hearing on the same, this committee will discuss and potentially approve the Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report of the city's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.  Committee members will also be asked to allow the city's repurchase rights on a lot in the Northeast Business Park to be waived.  (This just means that the city has the first right to repurchase this lot and must refuse to purchase it from the seller in order for the seller to sell it to a third party.)

Safety and Licensing Committee - 5:30pm:   Again this week, members of this committee will look to approve oodles of liquor licenses, license renewals, and changes of agents for licenses.  There is a long list of outdoors exciting events coming up in Appleton and those, too, will be quickly reviewed by this committee.  Here's the "short list" to give you a taste of what you can expect for fun upcoming events this summer!

And with that meeting, another Committee Meetings Week will wrap up.  'See anything that concerns you or that you would like to speak about this week?  If so, please let me know!  

In a couple of weeks, there will be a public hearing on the common council request for approval of a future land use map and zoning change for the large "farm field" bordered by Glory Lane, French Road, Providence Avenue, and Ashbury Drive.  You may have heard some neighborhood rumblings about this request as submitted by the property owner (since the mid-1990s!) -- Apostolic Truth Church.  I will post more about this in the next week.  But please know that I have reviewed and spoken with many in the church leadership and on city staff.  I believe that the change to the future land use map and zoning will be the right thing for the common council to approve (subsequent to a majority of the Plan Commission approving it... which they did last month).  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns on this and I can share with you what I know before the eventual blog post I will make in this regard. 

In the meantime... have a wonderful first full week of June!  Let's hope we get some longer stretches of good warm weather here very soon!  I'll be back here next week with more info for you.  I hope you'll join me again!