The Notes: Week of August 12 - August 16, 2024

Hello once again, Neighbors!  Here we are back in a Committee Meetings Week and we have lots of ground to cover in many meetings.  To follow is your weekly rundown of what will be discussed during this week's meetings:

Monday, 08/12/2024

Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm  To start the week, this committee will be asked to approve quite a few requests, including the following of note:

• Street occupancy permits for five awnings on the front of the Fox Commons (old Avenue Mall/City Center Plaza) which will project over the sidewalk along College Avenue.
• Continued closure of the stub of Oneida Street south of Washington Street that leads in to the Fox Commons project (old Avenue Mall/City Center Plaza) until 12/08/2024.  I expect that there will be some exceptions made should the city require this portion of the street open for accepting city Finance Department payments.  But this closure is expected to end around or before when tax bills go out so there may be no need for such accomodations.  
• A contract for land acquisition/appraisal works for portions of 66 parcels along the future Lawe Street construction project (to the tune of $217,000).  It is unclear at this time if this amount covers the land acquisitions or just the appraisal work surrounding the eventual acquisitions. 
• An amendment to a service contract for traffic signal control software for the city.  This was originally approved at a cost of $103,400 but the amendment increases the total to $132,510.  The increase is due to a change from in-house software to a software-as-a-service (Saas) service as the city's Information Technology Department requests.  Some of the increase appears to be payable with State of Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) grant funds. 
  

And the item which will likely garner the most discussion is a request for a variance from this committee for pavement installed in the front yard of a property on Ballard Road.  Pavement in the front yards of properties (except for driveways) is prohibited by municipal code for the most obvious reason -- to avoid residential neighborhoods looking like concrete parking lots in front of homes.  This one was installed by the owner ostensibly only as a turnaround to allow the owners to avoid backing onto Ballard Road to leave the property.  But there is nothing to stop this owner -- or future owners of this property -- from using this purported turnaround as a parking space in the front yard of the home.  City staff recommend the denial of this variance and I agree.  The municipal code is in place for a reason.  Any variance from it opens the door for more and more folks to defy the code language and for paved front yard parking spaces to crop up all over the city as "turnarounds."  If there is a true reason to allow this, the code should be changed rather than an exception being made and precedence being set.  What are your thoughts on this?  

Finance Committee - 5:30pm  The first item on the agenda for this committee is discussion and potential approval of a resolution that was held in an earlier committee meeting regarding the requirement of a 2/3 majority for approval of any changes to the Wheel Tax in the city.  I mentioned this resolution and my thoughts on it in an earlier blog post.  Since that post, I heard from one taxpayer who believes that instituting this measure (or one requiring the same "supermajority" for other tax and fee increases as well) would slow down the work of city government.  I do not believe that that would occur.  (But honestly, perhaps it should.)  I believe that for items as important to taxpayers as increased fees and taxes, a higher standard should be met and a larger portion of the city's common council should be required to be sold on the importance of an increase of funding from taxpayers.  It is not impossible for 2/3 of the 15 members of the council to agree on items.  It happens regularly throughout the year as there are many budget and other action items of the council which, by municipal code or by state statute, already require this 2/3 majority and regularly pass unanimously.  But this minimum requirement should be in place, as a start, for any increases in the Wheel Tax.  A simple one-vote majority should not be enough to place an added burden of an increased wheel tax on the taxpayers living in this city.  Do you agree?  Please share your thoughts on this with me.

Other items up for discussion by this committee include:

• A potential reallocation of some American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to a Human Resources (HR) Strategic Planning project.  The $45,000 in question was allocated to other projects which have come in under-budget so this overage is available to be moved from those projects to this new HR project.  I generally have no problem with this reassignment of funding.  But $45,000 is a lot of money for new mission, vision, guiding beliefs, and core values statements. 
• Acceptance of a municipal agreement between the city and WisDOT for the I-41/Ballard Interchange (a diverging diamond) project.  The city portion of the interchange reconstruction is projected at $435,200 (which will be included in the city's 2025 budget) but the entire project amount is projected to be $23.87M (with the state and Outagamie County funding the difference).  Here is a link to a summary of the project if you are interested.  Bidding is expected to begin later this year and construction in early 2025.
• Acceptance of grants from the federal government of $12M for Phase 2 of the city's Whitman Avenue (Valley Transit) remodel and $25M for a portion of the proposed new downtown "regional transit multimodal hub."  We can't look a gift horse federal government in the mouth, of course.  But all of this printed federal money and our country's inflation issues as a result of it are of great concern to me.  The grant funds are not expected to cover all of the expenses for these two projects either.  So... these projects will be your tax dollars -- both locally and nationally -- at work.  (NOTE: The budget amendments for the acceptance of these funds require a 2/3 majority of the council.  I don't believe that local government action will grind to a halt over the higher voting threshold on these proposed amendments.)  

Parks and Recreation Committee - 6:15pm  There are three action items on the agenda for this committee.  The first is a request to approve a new un-budgeted irrigation system and software for Reid Golf Course (projected at ~$28,000).  The expectation is that the funds will come from the income over and above expenses at the golf course in 2024.  I believe this to be a good use of the funds earned at the golf course and am glad that the course can be self-sufficient in repairs, maintenance, and upgrades.  The second is a request to allow Jones Park to be used for the fourth annual Irish Fest here in the city.  City policy requires that any private special event (requiring payment from attendees) in Jones Park be approved by this committee and the full council.  The third is a request to allow the city's Parks and Recreation Department staff to procure a license to sell raffle tickets during next year's Mom Prom (03/08/2025) to help raise funds for the city's fee waiver program.  The fee waiver program allows qualified low-income applicants to participate in city Parks and Rec programs without paying fees.  So the raffle proceeds would support more children in need participating in city Parks and Rec programs.  This, too, is a good example of the use of the funds procured by a department (in raffle sales) to support other programming by the department without looking to taxpayers for more funding. 

 

Tuesday, 08/13/2024

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

Utilities Committee - 4:30pm  This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items. 

Wednesday, 08/14/2024

Board of Health - 7am  These early-riser board members will talk about the following items... no doubt over lots of cups of coffee!

• A review of a proposed new child passenger safety program for the city's health department.  While I am pleased that programs such as this exist and understand that child safety is of utmost importance, I am not certain why the city needs to create such a program.  These programs already exist in local government (mostly in county health departments).  Most local fire departments host events highlighting the importance of proper child vehicle safety seats and monitor installation of said restraints/seats. Without much more information in this regard (as there is little included with the meeting agenda), I would be curious to know why the city health department needs to do "double-duty" on this when the community need has already been met in other levels of local government. 
• A note regarding slight changes to the verbiage in the "maximum number of animals" portion of the city's municipal code.  The verbiage change clarifies a rules exception regarding the keeping of chicken hens (with a valid permit from the city's health department) in the city.  None of the actual rules regarding keeping chickens in the city have or will be changed.  This code language change just better clarifies what is allowed in this regard.    

Appleton Redevelopment Authority - 9am  This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items. 

City Plan Commission - 3:30pm  As per usual with the meetings of this commission, there first be public hearings regarding the proposed action items.  The action items of the day are as follows:

• A rezoning request (from R2 to R1C Central City) for 319 N Drew Street.  The homeowner would like to request the rezoning as the home, built in 1893, is being rehabilitated and the setbacks in the R1C zoning would better allow for reconstruction of the front porch of the historic home.  
• A proposed street discontinuance (vacating) of a portion of North Sampson Street which was never improved with utilities or a roadway.  
• The proposed disposition (sale) of some city-owned land-locked property near the previously mentioned Sampson Street right-of-way.  The property is currently considered a city right-of-way for the street that was never built or improved.  And, if the commission and the full council approve this item, the portion of land will be sold to the highest bidder of all of the owners of properties adjacent to this piece of land.  

Community Development Committee - 4:30pm  This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items. 

Safety and Licensing Committee - 5:30pm  It seems that the saga of the liquor license renewal for Corner Pub is likely now coming to an end.  It has so long been delayed that the owners of the pub may now actually be able to open (after a year and a half of non-use of the license when only one year of non-use is allowed by law).  I dislike that, through technicalities and committee meeting delays and holds, municipal code has essentially been circumvented.  I do not blame the owners of the pub; but there is much to dislike about how this process was drawn out and delayed so many times.  I feel as though those potential liquor license holders with applications in process with the city clerk's office -- who were rightfully assuming that they would be granted licensure on a first-come-first-served basis -- were not properly allowed their due process to obtain their liquor license due to the "back door" delays on this particular license "non-renewal."

The committee will then proceed to take up the approvals of other liquor licenses (two of which are "reserve" licenses requiring fee payments of over $10,000 from the applicants!), some premises amendments, some temporary liquor licenses for special events, and a few cigarette/tobacco/vaping licenses.  

Human Resources and Information Technology Committee - 6:30pm  This committee will take up no action items at this meeting.  Instead, there will discussion on the mid-year reports from the Information Technology and Human Resources Departments.  

And that will close this week of city government meetings.  If you've read anything above that concerns you, please reach out and let me know.  I am happy to hear your feedback and answer any questions that you might have in this regard or on any other city government-related topic.  

I wish you a sunshiny mid-August week and hope to see you again next week for another alderman blog post!