The Notes: Week of November 20 - November 24, 2023

Happy Thanksgiving holiday week, Neighbors! 

This week is also Committee Meetings Week... but due to the holiday, there are quite a few meetings cancellations.  To follow is the list of committees with the week off:

• Parks and Recreation Committee
• Fox Cities Transit Commission
• Utilities Committee
• City Plan Commission
• Safety and Licensing Committee
• Human Resources and Information Technology Committee
• Community and Economic Development Committee
  

What to expect for the two committee meetings that will be held this week can be found below:

Monday, 11/20/2023

Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm  The last time this committee met, they heard community feedback on the upcoming reconstruction projects for two streets -- Perkins Street from Prospect Avenue to the railroad tracks and Morrison Street from Glendale Avenue to Pershing Street.  This week, the reconstruction projects are up for approval by this committee.  The primary sticking point that some neighbors have with the Perkins Street project is that there is currently no sidewalk along this street and there will be one put in during the reconstruction project.  Of course, these neighbors foresee having to shovel sidewalks where they don't have to now.  (Therein lies the rub of living in a snowy winter climate, right?  Snow removal from driveways and sidewalks really is a pain.)  But the city's overarching policy regarding multimodal transportation and connectivity throughout the city -- the Complete Streets Policy -- calls for sidewalks in all new subdivisions of the city and adding sidewalks where none exist in any street reconstruction project.  Some disagree with this policy and don't believe that there should be a citywide application of sidewalks.  While that might have been how neighborhoods were developed in the past, it is no longer so.  The policy is in place to ensure the consistency of availability of safer pedestrian movement throughout the city and add that to neighborhoods which currently do not have it.  I expect some further pushback from neighbors during this meeting so we shall see what the committee decides about whether to continue to universally employ this citywide policy or to make exceptions for pockets throughout the city.  

The committee will also entertain a new resolution regarding a proposed closure to the city's Whitman Avenue yard waste site.  This had been a suggested amendment to the 2024 budget; but some aldermen rejected the amendment during budget discussions due to wanting to hear more about the proposed plan and the impacts it might have on the citizens of Appleton and some surrounding communities which also use that site.  I am looking forward to hearing more about the proposal as it is expected that it would save the city around $50,000 to close the site to the public and there are other proposed uses for the physical site (such as off-season storage of some city equipment).  The idea for this proposal came from Alderman Chad Doran looking for ways to help reduce the duplication of governmental services in the city and throughout the Fox Valley.  Since the Outagamie County waste site is so near to all Fox Valley residents, it doesn't make much sense for the city to spend nearly $50,000 to offer folks the same things that are available to all of us right at the Holland Road county facility.  What do you think?  Take a look at the resolution and let me know your initial thoughts and feedback in this regard.  

Finance Committee - 5:30pm  The two items on the agenda for this committee are discussions of another two resolutions offered by Alderman Chad Doran.  The first one deals with a suggested change in the timeline of the new budget delivery to the common council members each year.  It seems that each year at budget time (mid-October through early November), there is a mad rush between the delivery of the budget to the council and budget adoption.  There's hardly enough time for aldermen to work to find ways to amend the budget to help save taxpayers money or ways to correct any wrongs brought on by some of the mayor's budget proposals.  Since the aldermen are not currently able to see or talk through the budget planning cycle with the mayor and the city staff/directors early on in the budget process, it is much more difficult for aldermen later to do the most important job they were elected to do -- city budget oversight.  This amendment looks to extend the period between the delivery of the budget to aldermen and, as proposed, would add a preliminary budget presentation by all city department directors to aldermen in committee meetings as early in the year as July.  As long as this logistically can be done, I see no reason whatsoever not to approve these timeline changes and begin implementing a more participatory budget process for the city.  The changes suggested can only improve the council's ability to serve taxpayers and allow for more alderman participation in the formation of major budget decisions for the better of all Appletonians.  Do you have an opinion on this proposal?  Let me know what you think.  

The second resolution to be discussed is a proposal to use of some American Rescue Plan (ARPA) dollars (of which the city still has millions to spend) to purchase an additional ten Flock license plate cameras for use by the Appleton Police Department (APD).  Flock and the APD agreed last year to a long trial of twenty-nine of these cameras at strategic places throughout the city.  When the trial ended (mid-2023), the APD needed to find a way to fund as many of these cameras as possible with whatever 2023 budget dollars were available from other spending categories.  As such, the city was only able to afford to keep nineteen of these cameras in the most strategic locations.  But the original twenty-nine were obviously placed where they were most needed for the best coverage of the city.  So, it may be best for the city to get back those ten cameras which had to be surrendered due to 2023 budget constraints.  To complicate matters, the agreement that the APD has with Flock calls for an expense of $2,500/camera.  But any cameras added in future years will come at a cost of $3,000/camera.  For $25,000 in ARPA dollars, the city can be better covered by the full twenty-nine Flock cameras -- each making the work of the police department easier -- while saving the city $500/camera right away.  I will be interested in hearing about how the contract between the city and Flock works and what other future expense there might be with these cameras.  But from what I know thus far, this seems an appropriate and important way to utilize some of the city's remaining ARPA dollars.  I'd love to hear your feedback on this as well. 

The third action item under consideration is especially important to those District 13 neighbors living on Amethyst Drive (from Bluetopaz Drive to Aquamarine Drive).  The city's 2024 Special Assessment Policy is up for approval by this committee.  But, as I mentioned when I explained my proposed amendments to the 2024 budget, the increase in the special assessment rate for new concrete street construction from 75% to 100% will negatively impact many District 13 neighbors.  (Note: My budget amendment was defeated in the 2024 budget adoption process.)  The negative impact of this policy change is especially evident with those property owners on Amethyst Drive who already had an initial street construction project hearing and were provided initial estimates on their street construction costs only to have this construction project delayed until 2024.  City staff listened to my arguments in this case and have asked, in a memo to this committee, that the new 2024 policy be approved but with an exception for those Amethyst Drive property owners.  Should this item pass in this committee and by the full council in the next Full Council Week, the 75% rate will hold for those of you Amethyst Drive (from Bluetopaz to Aquamarine) neighbors.  I am extremely hopeful that this will pass and intend to vote "yes" on this in both this committee meeting and during the next full council meeting. 

And believe it or not, that will wrap up this week's meetings!  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about any of the above items or about anything city-government-related.  I am always happy to hear from you!  

I wish you a week filled with all of the things for which you are thankful.  I hope that yours is a happy and blessed Thanksgiving.