The Notes: Week of March 11 - March 15, 2024

Hello, Neighbors!  Please accept my apologies for a skipped week in the alderman blog last week.  I was able to have some vacation time with five of my seven siblings and their spouses last week and prioritized family time over blogging time last Sunday.  It was Full Council Week last week and was a relatively uneventful city business week.  We are marching headlong into a very busy Committee Meetings Week this week with a bunch more items I will share with you below.  As always, I encourage you to contact me should you have any questions or concerns about what was discussed in council or what will be discussed in committee meetings this week.

Monday, 03/11/2024

CEA Review Committee - 3:30pm  Members of this committee (CEA = Central Equipment Agency) have not met since June 2023.  As such, they will elect a new chairman and vice chairman before moving to two vehicle requests.  There is a list of 2024 seasonal vehicle requests for the engineering and traffic engineering groups and the sewer and storm water divisions (for the summer construction season) and from the parks and facilities management group (for summer parks management) up for approval.  These committee members will also be asked to approve a list of new vehicles requested for purchase in 2025.  There is also an informational item regarding the 2023 and 2024 vehicle purchases for the city which shows that the purchases, in total, came in under budget by ~$488,000.  This is great news!

Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm  There are two items on this committee's agenda which will likely garner the most discussion -- discussion on a resolution regarding overnight parking in the city and a potential modification to an ordinance regarding street food vendors hours. 

The resolution regarding overnight parking was submitted quite a while ago and was committee discussed and then referred back to city staff for more information regarding logistics on how to manage a potential change in the city's existing "no overnight parking" policy.  After an additional review by city staff, they are requesting that the council not approve some sort of new overnight parking policy.  While I believe that there are some areas in the city which could allow for overnight parking, the area most in need of a more flexible policy is the downtown area in which there are the most logistics challenges with allowing for overnight parking.  I believe that the existing policy works well enough for District 13.  We can always contact the city with any short-term overnight parking allowances in our district.  What are your thoughts on this issue?  Would you like to see this pursued further?  

Aldermen in the city have heard from many of you regarding a potential change to street food vendor hours to help curb crime in the downtown area.  As I mentioned when this originally came up for discussion (it was held for further discussion during the last meeting of this committee), the proposal seems harmless... at first.  But since that blog post, many more free market issues have been brought up regarding a policy that focuses on limiting small businesses in the downtown area in favor of sending post-bar-time potentially "over-served" customers to the likes of brick-and-mortar businesses (such as Taco Bell, for example).  Making this proposed change (shortening the overnight service hours of food trucks) seems more and more like a misguided policy which will not likely solve the issue of downtown violence post bar closing time.  I am now in opposition to this proposal.  But I would definitely like to hear your thoughts on this before the item comes back to committee this week.  

Finance Committee - 5:30pm  There is only one action item on the agenda for this committee -- the potential approval of a contract for some sewer and water/grade and gravel work in the city's Southpoint Commerce Park.  The bid up for approval looks to be under budget; but the project may be over budget overall.  I will look to clarify that during this committee meeting before it is approved.

Parks and Recreation Committee - 6:15pm  This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items. 

Tuesday, 03/12/2024

Fox Cities Transit Commission - 2:50pm  This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items. 

Utilities Committee - 4:30pm  This committee has not met since January and there has been a resolution submitted to do away with this committee and roll their business into the Municipal Services Committee due to regular lack of agenda items and most agenda items being routine approvals of regulatory requirements (reports, etc).  In fact, the first item on the agenda is a request for the committee approval of the city's 2023 Stormwater Report to the DNR.  There is a simple requirement that a committee (and subsequently the common council) approve this regulatorily required reporting.  As this is often the case with items on this committee's agenda, there is no real need to have a whole separate committee -- and an extra scheduled meeting date/time for a separate committee -- simply to accomplish the city's acceptance of these regulatory requirements.

There are also three contracts to potentially be approved: 1) for more ash tree removal in the city -- $375,000 as budgeted for the year, 2) for required clear water well inspections in the city -- $242,000 plus a contingency, and 3) for native landscape management throughout the city -- ~$192,000 for the year.  (Note: These three contracts, too, could just as easily be added to another committee's agenda for approval, eliminating the need for a separate Utilities Committee.) 

Wednesday, 03/13/2024

Board of Health - 7am  The early risers on this committee will be asked to approve a change to the city's pool inspection/licensing fee structure due to state legislative changes/modifications to definitions of types of pool structures and an amendment to the city's rodent control policy.  The latter aims at shifting from the city's Health Department needing to physically manage and control rat populations with restricted-use pesticides (and therefore requiring a city staff member to be licensed as a certified pest control operator) to making property owners responsible for rodent control practices on their own premises.  I fully support this as the city's Health Department should not have the actual rodent control responsibilities; rather, they should be the educators and enforcers of rodent control in the city, making property owners aware of their own responsibilities for management of rodents on their properties.   

Appleton Redevelopment Authority - 9am  This committee will meet to welcome a new committee member, discuss redevelopment "opportunities" throughout the city, and discuss a limited license agreement between the Authority and the Boldt Company.  The latter is for the use of some property owned by the Authority (just north of the downtown bus station) that's adjacent to the continued construction of the city's library project for Boldt's temporary storage of materials and equipment related to said project from the date of the contract through September 30, 2024.  Boldt must maintain proper liability insurance for the duration of the contract and hold the Authority (and the city) harmless for any incidents/accidents that might occur there during the length of the contract.  This seems a fair and reasonable request and I expect that it will be easily approved.  

City Plan Commission - 3:30pm  It has been a while since this commission last met (in December of 2023!).  This week's meeting looks to be a relatively uneventful one as there is one public hearing and one associated action item on the agenda.  The owner of two adjacent properties on Green Bay Road would like to officially combine the two lots and zone the "new" property as single-family (not two-family as one of the existing lots is zoned today) for the purpose of building a garage with legal setbacks on the newly combined lots.  I don't anticipate any issues with this... but one never knows who will show up for a public hearing in potential protest of this proposed rezoning. 

Human Resources and Information Technology Committee - 4:30pm  This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items. 

Safety and Licensing Committee - 5:30pm  This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items. 

Community and Economic Development Committee - 4:30pm (*special time change for this week*)  There are a couple of items on this committee's agenda this week.  One is a "big one" which is the reason for the rescheduling of the meeting and allowing for more time for discussion in this committee meeting.  The "non-big one" item is the potential approval of a hold on the real estate asking price for business/industrial park lots in 2024 as such:

• Southpoint Commerce Park: All lots - $43,000/Acre.  "The City of Appleton hold option fees to reflect 1% of the purchase price annually for lots of 5 or less acres and 2% of the purchase price annually for lots greater than 5 acres. City continue to pay a commission of eight percent (8%) of the sale price when licensed broker is procuring cause for a transaction."

And the "big one" is really marked as two items on the agenda -- one notifying the public of a potential for a closed session of the committee and council members and the other that is currently lacking any supporting items linked in the currently published agenda but marked as "Request to approve the Development Incentive Agreement with USV 222, LLC for improvements and redevelopment of the property located at 222 W. College Avenue (Tax Id #31-2-0257-00) in Tax Increment Financing District No. 11."  Here is where the rubber meets the road with the city potentially offering a lot of TIF benefits to US Venture to get them to move their headquarters downtown.  

You'll likely remember that the "Bluff Site" properties are owned by US Venture but no development of a corporate headquarters for them has happened there despite the city investing millions in the infrastructure surrounding those properties and essentially coaxing Mosaic Health to move from the bluff to the currently being constructed Fox Commons property (the old Avenue Mall property) through TIF incentives.  (The city granted the developers of the Fox Commons property -- one of whom is a relative of the CEO of US Venture -- TIF support for that redevelopment.)  And now the city is again being asked by US Venture to spend more to support their redevelopment of "The 222 Building." 

I am not sure how I feel about this request as yet.  I understand that a corporation would be foolish not to ask for city buy-in and support of their moving their headquarters into the city's downtown.  I also understand that the city could refuse and potentially turn away US Venture -- and the potential positive economic impact their headquartering in the City of Appleton could bring to the city.  But I am very concerned that the "Bluff Site" remains undeveloped by US Venture and the city has sunken a lot of taxpayer money into that area already.  It feels a little bit like the city is being held for ransom by a corporation and that makes me very uncomfortable.  What do you think about this potential?  If you would like more information on this subject or would like to discuss this further with me, please let me know.  I will be in attendance at this committee meeting (even though I am not a member of this committee) so hopefully we will learn more so that a more informed decision can be made.  But I am disturbed by the "sunk costs" already spent by the city for a potential partnership between the city and US Venture... which makes even further city investment in this feel very uncomfortable.  Share your thoughts with me!  

That "big one" will put a bow on the last meeting of this Committee Meetings Week.  I thank you for joining me for a blog post again this week (despite my failing to post last week!).  I hope that you will share with me any of your thoughts or concerns on any of the items of interest noted above.  I always look forward to hearing from neighbors on these and any other items of concern in city government.  

Until next week... I wish you a wonderful mid-March week!