The Notes: Week of December 19 - December 23, 2022

It's unbelievable how quickly December has been flying by, eh, Neighbors?  Here we are in the week before Christmas, in a Full Council Week.  There are two other committee meetings this week as well.  So without further ado...

Tuesday, 12/20/2022

Library Board - 4:30pm  Board members will review and look to approve the library's November 2022 financial statements and bill register before moving on to approval of the 2023 budget and a schedule for 2023 Library Board meetings.  Perhaps the most important update to tune in for is the library building project update to be presented in the administrative reports portion of this meeting  At the meeting of the full council on Wednesday, council members will also get a project update so I will share with you any new information I hear then. 

Wednesday, 12/21/2022

Community and Economic Development Committee - 6:45pm  Right before the full common council meets, this committee will convene a special meeting for one agenda item.  The developers of the Park Central Project (at 318 W College Ave) are asking for time extensions on their contracted agreement with the city for TIF support.  The project is supposed to be complete by 12/31/2022 and a six-month extension is requested for this portion of the agreement.  The project is supposed to show a minimum assessed value of $8.1M by 1/1/2023 and a 12-month extension is requested for this portion of the agreement.  There were some structural analysis and footings replacement delays in the project, but the developers believe that the project will be complete by April 2023.  So, this delay (while a bit longer than I would expect due to the projected completion date) will likely be easily approved by this committee and move on to the full council agenda for approval only a short time later that night. 

 

Common Council - 7pm  The mayor will kick off this meeting with a request that the council approve his proposed appointments of citizens to the city's "Sustainability Panel."  The creation of this panel was discussed in August (blog post here) and I voted against its creation as I cannot agree with other council members that a larger government in Appleton is better.  Other committee appointment requests (mostly renewals for current appointees), a library project update (as also mentioned above), and a couple of certificates of appreciation for two retiring city department leaders will also be presented in the mayor's business portion of the meeting. 

Then, as per usual, the items that were discussed last week in Committee Meetings Week will be brought forward for full council debate and potential approval. 

Of note is the discussion of a resolution presented two weeks ago by Aldermen Chad Doran, Chris Croatt, and me regarding the excessive charge to Appletonians for parking permits for members of this common council.  Here is an overview of the resolution and the thoughts I shared with you prior to the Finance Committee's discussion last week.  And here is a full synopsis of what occurred at that committee meeting.  You'll find in the latter link that members of the finance committee were unable to see just how wasteful and excessive it is to charge Appletonians $40/month/alderman ($7200 total for 2023) for parking when the actual cost for an alderman to park downtown for city meetings is $10 or less per month per alderman.  Committee members voted unanimously to deny the resolution and the full council will now debate that denial and the merits of the resolution further. 

I and the other two resolution co-authors have been accused of "political theater" and "virtue signaling" for writing, presenting, and defending this resolution.  Webster defines "virtue signaling" as a display of attentiveness to political issues but specifically notes that the display is "instead of taking effective action."  I hope that you, my neighbors, will see that this resolution is action and not a display for the sake of gaining public approval.  In addition, I know that Alderman Doran and I have both turned in our city parking passes and do not use them, thereby saving taxpayers the excess and unnecessary expense.  (The cost of the parking passes for aldermen who turn them in and don't use them is transferred from the common council budget to the general fund as "excess funds" and used to pay down city debt and for other purposes as per the mayor's recommendations each year.)  Supporters of this resolution believe that abusing taxpayers with excessive costs is wrong, no matter the dollar amount, and are trying to do something about it.  Not all other council members agree.  I will, of course, be voting to approve this resolution rather than denying it as the finance committee has done.  Please let me know your thoughts on this and how you feel about what finance committee members and other council members have said and done in this respect. 

And with that... the 2022 calendar year in City of Appleton government (at least as far as meetings are concerned) will conclude.  The week between Christmas and New Years Day is supposed to be a Committee Meetings Week but since the full council already voted to cancel our January 4, 2023, meeting, there is really no call for any committee business to be conducted until the week before the January 18, 2023, full council meeting.

I hope that your week before Christmas is a peaceful one.  Santa will no doubt be busy but I hope that each of you gets the opportunity this week and next to spend some quality time (whatever that means to you!).  Thank you, once again, for tuning in for these updates.  As always, I welcome your feedback and look forward to connecting with you!