The Notes: Week of September 15 - September 19, 2025

Hey, Neighbors!  How about our Brewers?! WOO HOO! 

<Image courtesy MLB Network on Facebook>

Now... let's see some real post-season winning this year, right?  

Anyway... on to the more important (?) things like local government meetings this week.  It is a Full Council Meeting Week again and there are a couple other scheduled meetings on the schedule as well.  See below:

Tuesday, 09/16/2025

Library Board - Appleton Public Library Cornerstone Conference Room - 5pm  There are three action items on this board's agenda for the day.  They will look to approve 1) the August bill registry, 2) some small budget amendments, and 3) the Library Board Committee appointments for 2025-2026.  There are also various program updates scheduled in the informational items portion of the agenda (none of which have any supporting documents included in the online-posted agenda).    

Wednesday, 09/17/2025

Joint Review Board (Outagamie County) - 1pm  This board generally meets once a year to review the annual reports for any and all Tax Incremental Financing Districts (TIDs) in this county.  (There is also a Calumet County version of a Joint Review Board.)  If you are interested in the annual reports for TIDs 3, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, please see here for links to them.  You can feel free to attend the meeting and ask any questions that come up after your review of them.   

City of Appleton Common Council - 7pm  The last time the full council met, the mayor sprung on all of us -- last-minute -- a few mayoral proclamations.  This time, three proclamations are clearly listed in the agenda online.  There will be a brief review of proclamations for Constitution Week (thank God for our Constitution!), Nation Service Dog Month (thank God for wonderful service pups and for the K9s at Appleton Police Department!), and Think Train Week (thank God for freight transportation via railways... but gosh darnit, be safe around railways!).  

The mayor will also present and have a short discussion regarding the recently completed Appleton Police Department (APD) staffing study.  You can view the entire study report here.  Chief Olson of APD did give a brief overview and recap of the results at the Safety and Licensing Committee meeting a few weeks ago... but this will be a broader recap to help the full council to be prepared for the recommended changes that are sure to come for APD in the future.  Not surprisingly, the report gave the current department a good rating overall.  But there were some areas where improvement strategies were suggested.  Have a look at the report and/or attend or watch this meeting for more information and let me know if you have any questions for me on it. 

There is one public hearing scheduled for the city's vacation (getting rid of as public land) of the small portion of Oneida Street between Washington and Franklin Streets and a small public alleyway on the other side of the current downtown transit center.  This permanent vacation of these public lands is required to make way for the proposed new mixed-use downtown transit center (to be built with grant funding).  After the public hearing, the council will be asked to formally approve a resolution declaring the vacation.   

Then we'll move on the rest of the agenda containing items discussed and passed through to the council for approval last week in committee meetings.  Here are the highlights:

• From the Safety and Licensing Committee:  The applicant for a bartender's license who has a conviction record of five OWIs and a very recent disorderly conduct violation will likely be present to again plead his case for approval of the license.  He was unable to present to the committee any evidence of rehabilitation so the committee recommended to the council the denial of his license.  The applicant presented his story of not being able to find any employment except at a gas station where his employer apparently requires he hold a bartender's license.  He would only need to hold this licensure to sell liquor to patrons of the gas station if he is working there alone.  If he were to work with someone else there who is able to get a bartender's license, his employment there would not be at risk.  While I empathize with his situation, I still feel as though he has not shown proper concern for liquor laws and safety in this city as is evidenced by his criminal record... and that's regardless what kind of evidence of rehabilitation he might attempt to present to the council.  Surely there are other ways in which he can secure employment.  And, as mentioned, he could still hold his current job if he were to work alongside someone else who has a proper bartender's license. What are your thoughts on this?  Should the council use only sympathy and appeal to emotion in their voting on this licensure?  
  
  
• From the Community Development Committee:  The offer from the Performing Arts Center (PAC) to purchase a sliver of land that is currently used as a PAC parking area from the city for $1 is up for full council approval.  There were no concerns from members of the committee when this item was discussed and approved by them.  And the sale will lower some stormwater costs for taxpayers.  So, this sale is likely to go through.  As mentioned last week, there is another item up for approval regarding this sale.  That action item is to allow the city to apply for grants for a brownfield review of the property that's up for sale.  Any grant money received would be the only moneys that the city would put forth to review (and perhaps abate) and brownfield issues (where the grounds might be polluted or have a risk of environmental pollution).  Since there would be no other outlay of taxpayer money, I am in favor of this property sale.  What are your thoughts?  
  
  
• From the Human Resources and Information Technology Committee:  Last week, this committee's meeting, which was scheduled to begin at 6:30pm, was pushed back to 7:50pm due to a very long discussion in the committee meeting before it.  Before was a meeting of the Safety and Licensing Committee in which a truancy ordinance in the city was again discussed... but was again held until a later committee meeting.  Anyway, due to the late start and the fact that most of the committee members had just been through the arduous discussions on a potential truancy ordinance in the city, I feel that this committee (I, myself, included as chairman of this committee) did not do their due diligence or have a thorough and robust discussion on the topic of an alderman salary increase for those aldermen, effective April 2027.  (Note that no alderman voting on this topic is voting on the salary for himself/herself unless he/she is re-elected and serving in April 2027.) 
  
  To make a long story short, this committee (your alderman included) voted to recommend a 2.5% salary increase for aldermen serving in April 2027-- which comes to $168.75/year/district.  At the time of this committee discussion, my thoughts were that this dollar amount is not much and could be borne by the taxpayer, so I voted to approve this recommendation.  However, in the time since this discussion, I've done some further thinking -- and simple math -- and now feel as though a total over $2,500 annually in additional tax burden for you taxpayers is not appropriate.  (That is $168.75 times 15 aldermen in the city.)  I have always been concerned that the pay for this position should not be what gives a person the desire to serve his/her neighbors.  More pay is not necessary for me and other aldermen who believe in true public service to keep doing what I know is needed for you, my neighbors, and for our city.  As such, I believe that I will vote this week to keep the current alderman salary rate.  I would be interested in your thoughts in this regard.  Please share with me what you think.
  

As I eluded to above, there has been much discussion but no final committee recommendation as yet on a renewal of a truancy ordinance in the city.  At the Safety and Licensing Committee meeting last week, I presented a substitution amendment to the original resolution (from April of this year!) to try to get a truancy resolution passed for the city's school children in need of a push to get them into school.  There was some discussion on this at the meeting... but the meeting had already gone on quite long so there was not enough discussion for the committee to move forward.  There are currently at least two committee members who seem very much opposed to reinstituting a truancy ordinance in the city -- likely mostly due to mistrust of the school district due to previous acts under the old "truancy court" ordinance.  Some of us, though, do believe in giving a new truancy ordinance a good trial period and putting aside previous mistrust in favor of all of us coming together to do whatever it might take to get those who are most reluctant (and indeed, those who are outright ignoring the school district's attempts to even contact them) into school for learning and connection.  I know it's been a long discussion on this topic for quite a while now.  But I am always interested in what your thoughts might be in this regard.  If you haven't already shared, or if your thoughts in this regard have evolved, please reach out and share your ideas with me. 

I hope that you have a great week of "second summer" before we get to what seems like more autumn-like weather again predicted for next weekend.  Take care and let me know if you have any questions or concerns on anything city-government-related before we "meet" here again next week.