The Notes: Week of October 31 - November 4, 2022

It's city budget crunch time, Neighbors... so here we are in the last days of October and first days of November 2022, facing the daunting task of approving a budget for the city of Appleton amidst all sorts of fee and tax increases hitting our already stretched thin personal finances.  Excess borrowing and spending on the part of earlier Appleton city councils and the previous mayor are making the 2023 budget decisions more difficult for all of us... not excluding you, the taxpayer.  

This week's post will review what we can expect in this week's regular common council meeting (including a bit on where you can contribute to the discussions) and include with some takeaways from yesterday's "Budget Saturday" workshop on the proposed 2023 budget.  

The only two meeting agendas on this week's calendar are as follows:

Wednesday, 11/02/2022

Common Council - Special Session/Public Hearing - 6pm

This is your chance to appear before all members of the common council to express your thoughts and opinions on the proposed 2023 budget!  You are welcome at City Hall (6th Floor Council Chambers) to speak your mind on anything budget-related.  Last week, five citizens of this city of over 75,000 people "attended" the virtual public hearing/listening session online with the mayor.  I was one of five (of the fifteen) aldermen to also tune in for this session.  Interestingly, the comments ran the gamut for such a small crowd.  One citizen asked for a referendum on the library budget spending while another wholeheartedly agreed with moving forward with the library project as it stands on the budget.  Some of the discussion was on how the predicted 6.6% increase in property taxes might affect the taxpayers of this city and how the mayor's proposed budget got us to this point.  What are your thoughts on "all things city budget" at this time?  You can let all of the council members present on Wednesday know and/or you can always let me know individually.  

As I have mentioned, the mayor's budget includes a projected 5% pay increase for all city employees.  The city contracted a consultant to help determine whether city employees are being appropriately compensated for the work they perform.  Their analysis concluded with recommendations that many of the positions in the city be reclassified into different pay ranges, that the city's salary ranges for many jobs be realigned, and that an increase be provided for city employees to more closely align the city's employees with private sector employees performing similar jobs.  The 5% increase recommendation by the mayor (mentioned here), coupled with the heavy debt repayment schedule from previous years of municipal borrowing, leads us straight to the projected 6.6% increase in the City of Appleton portion of your property taxes.  While I don't advocate "punishing" the city's employees and rather prefer that they be adequately compensated so that the city avoids losing excellent employees and experiencing a high rate of unfilled job positions (which could lead to a reduction in service level for taxpayers), I think we can and should explore perhaps a slight reduction in the projected pay rate increase.  I think a "meet in the middle" approach where taxpayers see a little lower than a 6.6% rate increase while city employees see a little lower than the 5% increase the mayor advocates for would be a wise path to take.  Let me know your thoughts on this sticky situation and how you feel we should balance the taxpayers' burden with a satisfied city employee pool.  

The 2023 budget still contains the full balance of the $26.4M for the library project, despite the fact that the first attempt last month at going to bid for this project led to a rejection of all bids so as to avoid a drastic budget shortfall on this project.  I remain steadfast in keeping city government "honest" and not allowing this project to go over budget in 2023.  Along the way in this process, though, I will continue to encourage us to look at scaling back the library project as the 2023 library borrowing does nothing to help the city get out of the infrastructure pickle in which we find ourselves.  In short, I think we need to borrow less for this library project and more for keeping up with the repairs and replacement of our streets, roads, water mains, sewer lines, etc.  Though both are important to Appleton, we need well kept roads and safe water and sewer service to our citizens above all else.   

The full 2023 budget (as is or amended as the council sees fit) will not be officially adopted until the special session coming up next week (Wednesday, 11/09/2022, 6pm).  So you have time to make your thoughts and feelings known.  I'm happy to speak with you on any line item in the budget... so please reach out if you're interested!

Common Council - 7pm

After hearing from citizens' budget thoughts and concerns, council members will head into a regular session.  Highlights of the current agenda (and my notes regarding them) are as follows:

• The mayor will present four proclamations this week.  As we will be on the leading edge of November at this meeting, he will address Native American Heritage Month and Small Business Saturday (November 26).
  
  
• From the Municipal Services Committee: The newly-revised proposed street terrace policy is up for approval.  Though the wording is still confusing, this revision is a bit clearer than the existing policy currently in place so it passed through committee recommended for approval.  I will offer some amendments to the policy to perhaps "wordsmith" it a bit.  It is highly likely that the city will not see many more private terrace plantings than we've seen in the past under the current policy.  Noxious weeds and vision triangles (for safety's sake) are strongly emphasized in the proposed policy so I expect it will pass (with or without my proposed wordsmithing) with the current makeup of this council.  
  
  
• From the Safety and Licensing Committee: A revised "maximum allowed" fee schedule for towing/wreckers within the city limits is up for approval.  The policy has not been revised since 2018.  Towing companies which operate within the city provided input on what they thought they should be allowed to charge for their services without price-gouging the Appletonians.  If approved, this fee schedule will be effective on the first of the new year 2023.
  
  
• From the Parks and Recreation Committee: Another revised fee schedule -- this time regarding city park pavilion rentals and boat landings fees -- is up for approval by the council.  The fees for rental/usage of these areas will remain quite reasonable and the proposed increases minimal so I expect this revision to pass through council and if so, take affect 11/15/2022.
  
  
• From the Community and Economic Development Committee: Members of the committee recommend to the full council that an additional $224,000 of support be given to the developers of a mixed use development on Washington Street (across from the library) in TIF District #11 (from 18% to 20% support from the city).  In "exchange," the developers expects that the resulting development will result in an eventual $8M+ in value to the city's tax rolls.  Your thoughts on this are welcome.   
  
  
• From the Utilities Committee: During a presentation outlining that the original calculations of a 4% increase were underestimations, the city's wastewater utility staff noted that current market conditions and an increase in the infrastructure/capital improvements budget for wastewater treatment means a 7% increase is needed.  Though this is only an increase in the rates for the wastewater portion of your utility bill from the city (not the water or stormwater portions which appear on the same quarterly bill from the city) and the cost of this increase to an average residential customer is approximately $4/quarter, I am uncomfortable with the last-minute increase request long after the 2023 budget was released and news reports and community discussions on it began.  It seems that taxpayers are being regularly nickel-and-dimed... here, with the proposed AASD referendum, and on and on.  This trend is not sitting well with many.
  
  Unfortunately, should the 7% requested increase not pass for 2023 and the originally requested 4% increase be enacted instead, the projected 2024 increase would be 10%.  So we seem to be between a rock and a hard place here.  
  
  
• From the Human Resources and Information Technology Committee: As a direct result of my feelings (and the feelings of many others in the community) regarding the increases we seem to continually be asked to bear as taxpayers, I made a motion in the committee meeting on this issue: that the salaries of aldermen in this city not be increased in the coming year (for those elected in April 2024).  There is a bit of pushback from some who feel that the position of alderman is "underpaid" and thus discourages some in the community from coming forward to campaign to be elected to serve.  But the committee ultimately decided that no increase should be granted and that is the committee's recommendation to the full council.  Of course, council members may still amend this at Wednesday's meeting.  But I remain steadfastly opposed to yet another chance to nickel-and-dime you, neighbors.  I do not need more pay to continue to be dedicated to serving you well.  An increase in aldermen salaries would not lead to better service by any alderman in this community.  Let me know your thoughts.  Do you think you should pay more in property taxes to better renumerate your alderman? 
  

To conclude the meeting, the council will be apprised of an increase (of about $5,000) in the cost to upgrade the technology in council chambers.  And that will wrap up this week's full council meeting. 

It will be an interesting start to a budget-packed month!  As always, should you have any question on anything budget- or non-budget-related, please always reach out to me!  I will do my best to get answers for you and share whatever information I have available to me to help you.

Here's wishing you a healthy and happy start to your November!  Until next week...!