The Notes: Week of October 26 - October 30, 2026 (Including a Budget Saturday Note)

Hello, Neighbors!  Welcome to the last week of October 2026.  It's a Committee Meetings Week which will include a special meeting on Saturday, October 31.  Please see below for all the details:

Monday, 10/26/2026

CEA Review Committee - 4pm  As you'll recall (if you're a regular reader of this alderman blog), this committee only meets a few times at most during the year.  Their purpose is to review and affirm any changes or updates or plans for purchases of Central Equipment Agency (CEA) equipment (that means city fleet vehicles, etc).  They last met in June for a brief discussion and are poised to meet this week to review some proposed changes to some previously approved equipment purchases.  Up for approval are the following:

• Request for an additional ~$33.5k for changes to a Pierce Manufacturing PUC pumper vehicle expected to be delivered in 2027.  The proposed changes include several cab seating adjustments and other smaller adjustments to the original order but also one large change -- a "downgrade" from an ordered X10 engine to an L9 engine.  It seems that Pierce does not yet have the X10 engine available for purchase as they had originally expected.  As such, the savings from this "downgrade" will help offset the increased pricing due to the several other adjustments to the original order. 
• Request for an additional ~$30k for changes to a Pierce Manufacturing PUC pumper vehicle expected to delivery in 2029.  For this one, too, the same cab seating arrangement adjustments and other smaller adjustments are on the table.  But since this one is not scheduled to arrive until 2029, there will be no potential savings due to an engine "downgrade."
• Request for additional $6,111 for a seating arrangement change to allow for a more readily available SCBA apparatus in the cab for an officer.    
  

All of these requests will also come before the Finance Committee later in the day as the changes require additional financial outlay for the city.

Municipal Services Committee - 4:30pm  There are two small action items on the table for this committee.  But after that, in information items, the committee will hear from city staff regarding the recent tornado response efforts in the city (including what it has been taking city staff as far as man- and machine-power to deal with all of the downed trees on the west side of the city), the city's move towards a more formal traffic calming retrofit program (including, I believe, the near future formulation of a policy for which new enhanced crosswalks in the city can or should be added), and a brief discussion on the municipal services portions of the proposed 2027 budget.  

Finance Committee - 5:30pm  First on the agenda is a referred-back item which was originally approved by this committee -- the acceptance of a $425,000 grant to the Appleton Police Department (APD) and the subsequent request to use those funds for a robotic training device ("Spot") for APD officers.  I do not see the need for further discussion on this as APD already received full council approval to apply for this grant for the purposes of purchasing this equipment.  All this approval should be is a reiteration of that approval.  However... some council members apparently do not recall that initial approval.  As such, this will be again discussed and hopefully again approved.  

The balance of this committee's agenda includes the following:

• A request from the wastewater treatment department to transfer budget funds from one project (where the funds are no longer needed due said project coming in under budget) to another (where the lowest bid came in much higher than expected)
  
• A subsequent request to approve the lowest bid for the above mentioned wastewater treatment department project
• Requests for approval of the three CEA-related items mentioned earlier in this blog post for requested changes to fire equipment already on order
• A "Finance Directors Update"... I'm not at all certain what this means but I expect to hear more on how the finance department is moving forward to address the late state audit and the delayed budget documents. 
• Discussion entitled "2027 Executive Budget and Service Plan."  My guess here is that the mayor would like to cue up the already now released budget documents as he has previously always done for the full council when the budget is first released.  This of course did not happen this year due to all of the delays and the audit debacle.  (See here for more on that.)

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns on any of these items.  I will be interested to see how this "budget season" progresses as we are very tight for time now.  In fact, the meeting noted at the bottom of this post is not yet even publicly noticed or on the published online calendar of city government meetings.  This should be interesting... 

Parks and Recreation Committee - 6pm  Instead of budget talks and financial impacts, this committee will finally decide on which of the nine community member-proposed names the "old" Veterans Park should be renamed.  The options, if you haven't already seen or heard them, can be found in this document.  Take a look and let me know your thoughts so that I can share them with this committee during their decision-making discussions.  Whichever name this committee chooses at this meeting will come forward for full council approval next week. 

Tuesday, 10/27/2026  

Fox Cities Transit Commission - 2:50pm  Commissioners will review and look to approve the August and September 2026 payments for Valley Transit and then will move on to review the proposed 2027 budget associated with Valley Transit, the August and September 2026 financial reports and ridership reports, and several key performance indicator charts. 

Utilities Committee - 4:30pm  There are no action items for this committee to vote on this week.  Committee members will, however, discuss the pages of the 2027 budget dedicated to the Utilities Department operations and the July, August, and September water main breaks reports. 

Wednesday, 10/28/2026

City Plan Commission - 3:30pm  Commissioners have some interesting and deep municipal code and policy documents to review and perhaps approve this week.  First, they will take up a full repeal and replacement of the current Chapter 17 (Subdivisions) of the municipal code.  City staff revised this entire chapter from the ground up to better align it with the council-approved Plan Appleton comprehensive plan.  I see nothing egregious with the proposed replacement Chapter 17 verbiage as it was presented in previous meetings of this commission.  But you can review the proposed changes in the redlined version found here. 

They will also review a proposed new street naming policy for the city.  The last time this policy was reviewed and updated was 1998 and several concerns have regularly arisen from use of this old version.  Here is the proposed updated policy which is meant to better clarify things for both for city staff and the general public.  To align with the proposed new street naming policy, there are several minor corrections/changes also needed in the city's building addressing policy.  So that will be reviewed and potentially approved as well.  

Community Development Committee - 4:30pm  This committee, too, will review and look to approve a municipal code update.  It is proposed that certain building permits (specifically for HVAC equipment replacements, electrical permits for service changes, and building and electrical permits for accessory buildings and structures in one- and two-family residential) have a shorter period of validity than the current two years.  Most of these permits are taken out for immediate work.  So the proposal is to have a 90-day expiration on the HVAC and electrical permits for service changes and a 1-year expiration on building and electrical permits for accessory structures.  All other permits would continue to have a two-year expiration date.  I don't see this as an issue so long as the applicants are made well aware of these shorter time limits before they take out these permits.  What are your thoughts?   

This committee will also look to approve the preliminary proposal for the Core and City Department funding for the 2027 program year of the city's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG).  See here for the initial proposal which shows a total of $394,037 -- that's 68% of the total federal allocation to Appleton for CDBG of $580,250 -- to be used for city programs which support the community per the CDBG guidelines.  I am fully in support of the use of as many federal grant dollars as possible to directly offset City of Appleton expenses so long as they satisfy the federal grant requirements.  Do you agree?

Safety and Licensing Committee - 5:30pm  As has been the trend lately, this committee will begin by conducting hearings for recent convictions of alcohol license violators.  Here is a list of those asked to come forward this week:

• Appleton Liquor for dispensing alcohol to a minor - 80 demerit points for this offense, a current total of 160 demerit points at this time
• Flanagan's Stop and Shop for dispensing alcohol to a minor - 80 demerit points for this offense, a current total of 160 demerit points at this time
• Gypsy's 812 Lounge for dispensing alcohol to a minor - 80 demerit points for this offense, a current total of 160 demerit points at this time
• Lombardi's Steak House for dispensing alcohol to a minor - 80 demerit points for this offense, a current total of 80 demerit points at this time

Then there are two bartender license applications which will require a vote of this committee and the council for approval/denial of the licenses due to the applicants' criminal records.  First, there is an applicant with a "Intimidation of a Victim/Threat of Force" (with a Domestic Abuse modifier) felony conviction.  This one means that the committee has no choice but to formally deny the application per Wisconsin law.  Second, there is an applicant with a criminal record as long as nearly two memo pages which includes five Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) convictions and numerous convictions of possession of and manufacture and/or delivery of methamphetamine or narcotics or amphetamine on her record.  She also currently has an open case for yet another of these drug-related offenses.  This very obviously indicates a "habitual offender" and as such, her bartender license application should be denied.

The committee will then move on to revisiting the recent resolution regarding monetary penalties for vehicular noise (specifically for tire squealing, gravel throwing by tires and not at all having to do with muffler or after-market sounds enhancements on vehicles).  See here and here for more on this.  My brief research on the topic of increased monetary penalties aimed at curbing illegal activities has led me to believe that increasing these fines from $150 (first offense) and $250 (second offense) to "up to $500" (first offense) and "up to $1000" (second offense) is just too large a leap and could backfire on the city in several ways.  Much of what I found states that 1) fine increases of up to 100% of the current fine amount are associated with fewer violations while increases greater than 100% are not seen to lead to reductions in the activities in violation and 2) there is a predicted reduction in violations associated with fine increases of 50 - 100% but not with increases below 50% or above 100%.  As such, I will suggest and hope that this committee will revise the amendment to this resolution to call for $250 (or $300 at most) for a first offense and $500 for a subsequent offense.  (These smaller increase amounts were suggested as an amendment at the council meeting last week.  But discussion on that stalled and the item was referred back for more committee work.)  Do you have any thoughts on this?  Please let me know if so.  

Next, the committee will review a proposed Request for Proposal (RFP) for a consultancy regarding the "technical interpretation and impact analysis of AI-assisted surveillance systems" in the city.  This comes from Resolution 9-R-26 which was introduced June to help the city create a policy (guardrails, if you will) for the procurement and use of systems like Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) which have, incidentally, now been banned for city use within the City of Appleton.  Since ALPRs are not the only surveillance technology to ever come up as an option for crime prevention or crime solving within the city, this resolution and the resulting RFP to be discussed at this meeting are important for the future in Appleton.  Take a look at the RFP and let me know your thoughts on this.  We aren't the only city having to go through this and attempting to prepare for what we don't yet know will come along.  So I'm concerned about the costs of this consultancy and how it can be funded and about how long a consultant's advice from today will last the city into the future.  That of course doesn't mean we should stick our heads in the sand... but it is a complicated matter.  I would love to hear your thoughts on how you think this should proceed. 

There are several information items on the committee's agenda as well, including a long list of more recent liquor license violation convictions and the most recent "combined focus" police report.   

  

Human Resources and Information Technology Committee - 6:30pm  This committee will look to approve a successor labor agreement between the city and the local Teamsters Union for Valley Transit employees.  The agreement is a renewed three-year agreement (2027-2029) with namely wage adjustments for driver pay, some changes to the current leave benefits (counting them as hours rather than as days), and some other minor administrative changes to the current wage schedule. 

Then they will finally discuss and vote to make a recommendation to the council in regards to aldermen salaries for those elected after April 2028 (meaning, no currently seated alderman is voting on their own salary unless they get re-elected for a future term).  Note that this item has been held in this committee since August.  It is my recommendation that we do not plan an increase in the salary for aldermen as we have many financial unknowns within the city at this time.  This council should not commit future council to an increase in pay until we know more about the current situation in the city's Finance Department, what will be the financial impact of the city's missed audit deadline, etc.  The optics, as they say, are not good... even though these current issues were and are not the direct fault of the council members.    

Saturday, 10/31/2026

Finance Committee - Special Meeting - "Budget Saturday" - 8am  Yes.  It is that time again!  On Halloween Day, the Finance Committee (and customarily, all of the other members of the council), will take up the mayor's proposed 2027 budget and discuss it page by page and line by line.  It is generally a full day's work and includes a presentation of each section of the budget to the council members by the departmental directors.  I have yet to complete my entire sweep of the proposed budget; but since I began this year's deep dive, I have found several irregularities likely due to the rushed manner under which this budget was composed and prepared.  This is a bit disconcerting.  But I don't want you to be overly concerned about that... your alderman is on it!  I am most concerned that we get it right and that a proposed budget does not negatively impact taxpayers greatly.  You may have already heard that the tax rate with this proposed budget will remain stable with a small decrease in the mill rate.  This is not due to any cuts in service or salaries but instead due to the changeover of Central Equipment Agency (CEA) funding from all general fund-based to short-term borrowing.  For 2027, this is being phased in as it was approved by the council a few months ago.  I very much dislike this.  However, it seemed the only path forward (besides budget cuts which I would prefer but which other members of the council could not fathom) for the city at this time. 

Have you had a look at the proposed 2027 budget yet?  What are your questions or concerns?  Let me know before Halloween (or even after that, as long as it's before the adoption of the budget scheduled for 11/11/2026) so that I can either answer them for you or get you the answers you're looking for.  You will also have the chance to make your voice heard yourself at the public hearing for the proposed budget on 11/04/2026.  I will share more information on those meeting dates in coming alderman blog posts.

I can hardly believe that we are already in budget season and headed into Election Day (Tuesday, 11/03/2026) and then right straight into the winter holiday season...!  I hope that you have a great last week of this month, folks!