The Notes: Week of June 3 - June 7, 2024

Welcome to June, Neighbors!  This year is already flying by...!  

This week in City of Appleton government is a Full Council Week so there will, of course, be a meeting at 7pm on Wednesday evening.  But there are also a few others scheduled as well.  So... without further ado...

Tuesday, 06/04/2024

Fox Cities Transit Commission - 3:30pm  This is not a formal meeting of the commission but is a public hearing for Valley Transit to discuss proposed changes to local transit services.  Since there has been a persistent lack of bus drivers available and/or willing to work for Valley Transit, the organization is unable to maintain the current level of service (number of routes and busses on those routes).  As a result, the proposed change is that the bus services during non-peak hours will move to an on-demand Valley Transit Connector service.  Here is the public hearing notice with more information on the proposed changes.  What are your thoughts in this regard? 

I am comfortable with the proposed changes as there does not seem to be a better alternative with the staffing issues that have plagued Valley Transit since 2020.  The organization has made a lot of efforts in the past year or two to lure new employees (drivers) to work for Valley Transit.  There have been ongoing pay incentives offered and a lot of outreach has been done by both Valley Transit leadership and the city's Human Resources department.  If there are not qualified drivers, the service cannot possibly continue to run some routes all the time.  I am not a bus service user myself, though.  So, I am interested in hearing the feedback from those who are frequent Valley Transit riders.  

Wednesday, 06/05/2024

Appleton Public Arts Committee - 8am  The one request on this table for this committee this week is a request from the Appleton Police Department (APD) to allow a mural on the east-facing wall of the APD headquarters at 222 S Walnut Street.  The mural would be painted by students in the Appleton Area School District under formal artist supervision.  The theme of the artwork is "It Takes All of Us."  A rendering of the proposal is included in this document. 

Board of Review - 9am  This board generally meets once a year to review taxpayer/homeowner formal objections to their property tax assessment.  This year, there is one scheduled objector on the agenda for this board.  In past years (especially in reassessment years like last year), there have been multiple objectors.  This year's one objector owns a home in the Calumet County area of the city and believes that his property should be assessed at ~$185,000 less than the most recent city assessment... even though his home assessment between 2023 and 2024 already went down.  This board will need to review only the factual information relevant to this particular home's value and other comparable homes for sale or sold in the area in order to determine whether the city's tax assessor has appropriately and legally valued this home for the tax rolls.  

City of Appleton Common Council - 7pm  With a Fifth Week off last week, it seems as though it has been forever since the items up for approval by the full council this week were discussed.  You though, dear blog reader, are familiar with some of the major issues to be discussed as you no doubt read last week's installment.  (Thank you!)  Most of what will be up for approval is also detailed in this blog post from two weeks ago -- the last Committee Meetings Week before this full council meeting. 

Here are the highlights of what you can expect at this week's meeting:

• The mayor will begin with five proclamations.  That's right... we are back in "proclamations season," baby!
  
• There will be a formal public hearing on the rezoning of some District 13 property from its annexed-in default zoning of Agricultural to R1-B Single-Family Residential.  This property is in the Emerald Valley Estates subdivision and is proposed to be the 8th addition to that subdivision when all is said and done.  Later in the meeting, this rezoning and a proposed preliminary plat of the 8th, 9th, and 10th additions to this subdivision, which were approved by the City Plan Commission, will be up for a full vote by the council. 
  
• From the Finance Committee:  There is a request for a sole-source (from Pierce Manufacturing) fire engine (pumper) for ~$1.12M.  When this request came before the Finance Committee, some questions regarding prepayment discounts which might be available for the city and questions regarding a potential price increase between the order placement and the predicted ready-for-pick-up date (which includes a 50-53 month estimated lead time) came up and were not answered at that meeting.  Once these questions are answered -- assuming they'll be answered in ways that will ease the minds of the council members that the city will be getting a better deal if prepaying and that there will not be an unexpected price increase in the next 50 or so months -- I expect that this purchase will be approved. 
• Also from the Finance Committee:  The proposed 50% hike in the Wheel Tax and the proposed $2M in American Rescue Funds Act (ARPA) funds to local non-profits will be debated.  Y'all know my thoughts on these items.  But if not, please read last week's blog post.  Please also keep letting me know (and the other aldermen, too!) your thoughts on these two items so that educated, fair, and appropriate votes can be taken on these two items. 
• Also from the Finance Committee:  A proposed Responsible Bidder ordinance was approved by the committee and is now up for full council approval.  I have changed my mind a bit about this proposed policy as it was explained a bit further in the committee meeting.  While I still have concerns that this extra layer of government might make it more difficult for the city to get more competitive bidding on city projects, there is an "escape clause" in the policy that will allow the director of the Department of Public Works (DPW) to override or allow bidders who do not meet every single requirement of the policy.  In general, I am against more legislation... but in this case, I am hopeful that this policy will do more good than harm.  (Please reread this blog post for my concerns on this proposed policy and let me know if you have any other thoughts on it.)  
• From the Human Resources and Information Technology Committee:  On this full council meeting agenda is an item that has not yet been discussed by this committee.  It involves a resolution submitted before this current council year by a former alderman (as primary author).  You can view the resolution here.  As this has not yet been discussed in a committee session, I am not certain why it appears here in this agenda.  But we should know more about that as the week progresses, I suspect.  In the meantime, I can weigh in and state that as long as the goal of this resolution can be achieved with little or no taxpayer investment from the city's Information Technology (IT) department/resources, I am fine approving it.  If, however, proceeding with the goals of the resolution will be costly to taxpayers, I will not be willing or able to approve it.  There are already countless web-based resources which citizens of Appleton can reference for the same information which would potentially be disclosed through the intent of this resolution; so I believe that there is little need to spend a lot of city staff time and energy on this initiative.  What are your thoughts on this? 
  

Much of the rest of the agenda for the full council meeting is regular business such as license approvals, etc.  

Also of important note this coming weekend: The 73rd installment of the Appleton Flag Day Parade is scheduled for 2pm on Saturday, 06/08/2024.  You can find more information about this uniquely Appleton tradition here and here and below.

I hope that you will take part in the festivities and enjoy time with friends and neighbors at the parade or any of the pre- or post-parade events and concerts!  

As always, I am pleased to have you here to read the goings-on in your city government.  Thank you for reading and for regularly sending your feedback to me.  Have a wonderful first full week of June and I hope to see you back for another alderman blog post installment a week from today.