The Notes: Week of October 2 - October 6, 2023

Welcome to October, Neighbors!  It's another Full Council Meeting Week here in Appleton city government.  It is also Board of Review week as well.  So here's what you should know:

Wednesday, 10/04/2023

Board of Review - 9am  This board meets once a year (sometimes for multiple days) to review and decide whether property owners in the city have legitimate claims for changes to the tax assessments on their properties.  There is a step-by-step process through which these claims can be made and are to be reviewed by board members.  This year, due to the citywide reassessment of all properties, there may be many claims to review and adjudicate.  No agenda for this meeting is yet posted; but that is because taxpayers have until Monday, October 2 at 9am to file to have their tax assessment challenged and reviewed with the Board of Review.  If you have any questions on your latest property tax assessment, please contact the city assessor's office right away so that you don't miss the chance to make a legitimate challenge of it this year.  Here again is the city website's property reassessment page with contact information.  Should there be a large number of claims, the Board of Review will meet on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week in council chambers.

City of Appleton Common Council - 7pm  The mayor kicks off this meeting with a number of proclamations -- six, to be exact.  And this is also the night in which council members will be more thoroughly briefed on the 2024 executive budget for the city.  Each council member will take home a heavy souvenir of the occasion -- the 2024 budget binder!  There are then two public hearings on the agenda, one for the rezoning of a property near the St Elizabeth Hospital campus and one for numerous zoning ordinance text amendments.  I expect no objections to these two items.

The meat of the agenda includes items which were debated last week in committee meetings.  Here are the items I expect might garner some additional discussion this week:

• From the Municipal Services Committee:   The resolution regarding the Lawe Street truck route through downtown Appleton was amended in committee to include many additional items of review that city staff is directed to conduct subsequent to their recommendation that the truck route remain as is.  (This resolution was noted here and the committee-amended version can be found here.)  Some on the committee (one of whom is the resolution's co-author) would like this further staff review in the hopes that the end result of the review will change and this truck route designation be removed from the downtown area.  I do not believe that further work from our city staff in this regard will give the authors of this resolution the result they would prefer.  The additional requested reviews are nothing more than onerous added work for staff members.  I believe that this truck route is a necessary piece of the transportation puzzle that is the City of Appleton.  How else will trucks which carry goods for downtown Appleton businesses to service residents of the area and those well beyond get to and from their destinations in and around the downtown area?  Should the truck route designation be removed, more truck traffic will be routed around the city... which cannot be good for city businesses, traffic safety, or the environment.  And removal of the truck route designation on Lawe street will no doubt lead to more trucks driving the College Avenue corridor which was just reduced from four to three lanes.  Anything but maintaining the truck route designation on Lawe Street as it has been for decades will no doubt shift or create new traffic issues and lead to an increased need for road reconstruction and maintenance elsewhere in the city.  As such, I expect to vote to deny this resolution in its entirety.  What are your thoughts on a downtown truck route designation on Lawe Street?    
  
  
• From the Safety and Licensing Committee:  A sole-source provider request for safety cameras throughout the city is up for full council approval.  As I mentioned last week, I prefer the city never be faced with a sole source supplier for any purchases.  But in this case, the cameras have been in use on a trial basis with the Appleton Police Department (APD) for quite some time and have proven their worth.  APD has also been judicious about keeping only some of the cameras that were used in the trial in the more key locations in the city and used every resource in their budget to pay for these select cameras for the balance of 2023.  I believe this to be an acceptable use of sole-sourcing for the city.  
  
  
• From the Community and Economic Development Committee:  This committee voted to approve a contract for the Green Bicycle Company for some consulting work in connection with the mayor's newly announced Housing Development Policy Task Force.  I attended the committee meeting and posed many questions to city staff and the committee in this regard.  My concerns were outlined in last week's blog post.  Unfortunately, my concerns remain, even after speaking with the mayor on this topic.  I am still uncertain that this consultant is the best choice to do the work (as there was no competition for the job).  I am concerned that they were the only consultant to offer a proposal to the city for the work, that the task force was announced in a press conference and with a press release from the mayor's office before the council was asked to approve this contract for the work pivotal to the task force's mission, and that none of the other stakeholders who look to benefit from the work to be done by any city-contracted consultant were asked to help the city to pay for the consulting work.  I see that the work is important to the city...  but this process has had so many wrong turns thus far, I would prefer to see the city step back and rethink the process and resubmit a new request for proposals for the work to be done.  We should not rush into the work and use the only consultant who applied when we have the luxury of more time... despite the mayor's press conference on the creation of this task force.  Do you agree?  I'd love to hear your feedback on this.     
  

There are only a few other items on the full council agenda... but they will not likely require more discussion than was already had in last week's meetings.  If you are aware of anything else pressing or of concern to you, please let me know.  Also, please reach out should you have any questions on the above or anything else mentioned in any of my blog posts.  I'd love to hear from you!

Until next week, I wish you the loveliest of early autumn weeks this first week of October (can you believe it?!).  Thanks for trusting in me to inform and serve you and our neighborhoods!