The Notes: Week of September 9 - September 13, 2024

Thanks for tuning in again this week, Neighbors.  We are in a Committee Meetings Week this week so there are plenty of meetings on the schedule.  There are quite a few committee meeting cancellations though, too.  

The following committees have cancelled meetings this week due to lack of agenda items:

• Parks and Recreation Committee
• Fox Cities Transit Commission
• Appleton Redevelopment Authority (which does not often meet but was originally scheduled to meet this week)
• Community Development Committee
• Human Resources and Information Technology Committee

The rest of the week will go a little something like this:

Monday, 09/09/2024

Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm  A request for a driveway variance which has previously been denied by this committee is back on their agenda since it was referred back for further discussion.  I mentioned this item here.  My opinion on this remains the same as when it was last brought up -- that there is nothing particularly unique about this property that would warrant an overriding of the municipal code which prevents folks from paving their front yards (which would eventually draw from the neighborhood curb appeal throughout the city should this trend continue and more variances such as this be granted).  A fellow alderman has mentioned that perhaps this variance should be granted because "Why else would there be an option for variance appeals in the city code?"  The answer is that sometimes there are unique property features (such as corner lot properties on angled streets or properties that abut roadways on both the front yard and the back yard for example) which might warrant a variance.  But absent that type of uniqueness specific to the property itself -- and not the desires of the current property owner -- there is no call for a variance here.  If an exception should be made for this property, the city would be better off removing the no-paving-front-yards portion of the municipal code altogether and allowing this practice throughout the city. 

The other three items on this committee's agenda are requests for approval of some parking and intersection controls changes on a few city streets.  

Finance Committee - 5:30pm  The agenda for this committee this week is a rather short one with requests for the approval of two items:

• A sole-sourcing request for the purchase of two workstations for two new employees at the police department (including partition walls and furniture items) to the tune of ~$48,000.  According to the memo on this request, this purchase is utilizing the best pricing through a government purchasing contract.  It seems to me that this is a steep price to pay for the workstations for only two employees.  But this apparently follows the old adage that everything government-purchased is more expensive.  I intend to ask for a more specific breakdown on how this project could possibly rack up costs over forty grand.  It seems excessive.  What do you think? 
• A sole-sourcing request for engineering services for another project at the Appleton Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWWTP) using funds from another under-budget project in the AWWTP budget.  While I understand that engineering services are often best sole-sourced, I always do have concerns with sole-sourcing as it limits competitive pricing.  In this case, I am concerned that this particular contractor is relied upon so heavily that the city might eventually be completely unable to obtain competitive pricing for future projects.  As long as there is a plan for dealing with that potential, I can see approving this.  But I am interested to hear the plans in this regard. 

Tuesday, 09/10/2024

Joint Review Board (Outagamie County) - 1pm  This board last met a year ago for the same purpose as is planned for this meeting -- to review the annual reports on the city's Tax Incremental Districts in Outagamie County.  If you are interested in reviewing the 2023 reports, you can find them linked in this meeting's agenda (found here). 

Utilities Committee - 4:30pm  You'll remember from last week's blog post that this committee was scheduled to meet during the last Committee Meetings Week but that meeting was cancelled due to a lack of a committee quorum (not enough committee members present for the committee to conduct business).  Then in this committee's special meeting before the full council meeting last week, one informational item was missing -- the discussion of a "final update" on the December 2022 AWWTP polymer incident.  Well... it's back on this week's agenda as the main item of discussion.  I will be interested to hear what the costs of this incident to the city totaled and what procedures and policies AWWTP has put in place since this incident to eliminate the possibility of a reoccurrence of the same or a similar issue.  If you would like to hear about it as well, be sure to attend this meeting or tune into it online (video link available here when the meeting is in progress).     

Wednesday, 09/11/2024

Board of Health - 7am  Early riser board members will be attending (or tuning in) only for some informational items this week.  They will review the 2023 annual report of the Health Department and a dangerous animal declaration and list of new noise variances granted in the city. 

City Plan Commission - 3:30pm  There is only one action item for commissioners to review -- the public participation plan for the upcoming update to the city's Comprehensive Plan.  Here is the fairly straightforward plan up for approval.  You can review it and let me know if you have any questions.

Safety and Licensing Committee - 5:30pm  The regular slate of license renewals and temporary (picnic) licenses are all that this committee is tasked with reviewing and potentially approving this week.  The city clerk will also provide information regarding the November 5th election.  For the first time in quite a while, it looks like this committee's meeting will not be a long one with contentious items!

So as you can see... it doesn't look to be a super-exciting week of numerous newsworthy items on committee agendas.  If you have any questions or concerns or feedback regarding anything in the above or anything else city-government-related, please contact me and let me know.  As I often say, I am always happy to hear from you!  

Have a great week!  I'll meet you back here for more next week...