This week in City of Appleton government is a Committee Meetings Week. We have many meeting agendas to touch on today, including a less common one on Thursday. Here’s what you can expect:
Monday, 05/12/2025
Municipal Services Committee – 4:30pmThere are a number of ordinance change requests relating to road signage/parking on this committee’s agenda. The one most important to District 13 is a planned change to intersection controls around the new Sandy Slope Elementary School. The city traffic engineers are requesting a four-way stop at Ashbury Drive and Providence Avenue and a four-way stop with crossing guards at Ashbury Drive and Lightning Drive. Of course these changes will add some time to a drive down Ashbury Drive; but I think all those who live near there and use the street regularly can agree that slowing down traffic on that street is probably warranted, especially once an elementary school is fully operational near there. What are your thoughts on these proposed changes?
Another item on this committee’s agenda is a request to increase the amount of a contract with a consultant for streets design/plan review for the Thrivent property development. The amount already approved for this consultancy was $24,880. The request on the table is to nearly double that to a total of $45,100. This is a crazy leap in more consultancy spending for the city. However… you might recall that the city established (and Thrivent already paid into) an escrow account to pay for these sorts of expenses. So, the increase will come from that escrow account and not directly affect the city budget. With that in mind, I can see approving this change. But I am still concerned about the trend of more and more money going to consultants for projects in this city. What do you think?
Finance Committee – 5:30pmWhile this committee’s agenda looks long, there are only three action items up for approval. There is one large item which contains many requests for budget adjustments. The adjustment request that stands out most to me is this:
Since the private fundraising portion of the now completed library project was to be $12M, I will be curious to ask why this amount is substantially less than that.
Parks and Recreation Committee – 6pmThis will be the first meeting of the Parks & Rec committee since the new council year began. So their agenda includes those “housekeeping” items that all of the other committees took care of a few weeks ago. They are also going to discuss and potentially approve this proposed park rule change concerning the consumption of alcoholic beverages:
I understand where the Parks & Rec Department is trying to go here. But my concern is that this change would lead to more issues with enforcement than can be managed by the police department. I intend to ask about this (and ask the Police Chief’s opinion as well). What do you think of this proposed new rule concerning alcohol in the parks? Do you think it will be helpful in keeping down unruly or obnoxious parks patrons’ nefarious activities? What affect might it have on otherwise law-abiding patrons of parks pavilion rentals? What other unforeseen consequences might come from a rule change such as this? Let me know what you think.
Tuesday, 05/13/2025
Fox Cities Transit Commission – 2:50pm This meeting has been cancelled.
Utilities Committee – 4:30pm This meeting has been cancelled.
Wednesday, 05/14/2025
Board of Health – 7am Members of this board will get up bright and early in order to take care of this board’s “housekeeping” items in their first meeting in the new council year. There are no other action items on this board’s agenda this week. But in informational items, they will review the first quarter 2025 health department report, the April 2025 health department newsletter, and the new noise variances that have been recently approved.
Appleton Redevelopment Authority – 9am This meeting has been cancelled.
City Plan Commission – 3:30pm Two northside properties will be discussed by this commission:
- The Dorn property (south of CTH JJ and east of Richmond Street) that was just annexed into the City of Appleton Newly annexed properties come into the city with an Agricultural zoning code. At this meeting, the commission will be asked to approve the rezoning of the property to R-1B Single Family so that development and construction of more housing in the city can commence.
- The Dewitt Development Partners LLC property (between French Road and Baldeagle Drive north of Emerald Valley Estates) The ownership of this property is requesting annexation into the city. The plan here, too, is to grow the city with new subdivision development.
Community Development Committee – 4:30pm There is only one action item on the agenda for this committee: a request to again amend the development agreement between the city and the developer of the former site of the city’s Blue Parking Ramp. The closing date on the city’s sale of this property has been put off twice already. Let’s hope that this final amendment to the agreement gets the property sold and developed quickly. With this latest amendment, the anticipated assessed value of the property after development will be $12M on or before 01/01/2027.
Safety and Licensing Committee – 5:30pm The first thing on the agenda for this committee is a request to hold (delay) action on the resolution submitted earlier this year regarding a return of a truancy ordinance in the city. A meeting between many governmental and school district representatives took place in April. This was, I suspect, the first of many meetings before developed truancy ordinance language would even be presented to this committee again for further discussion on this matter. I will vote to allow these discussions to continue until we have a good grip on what can be done, how it will be handled and enforced in the city, and what exact verbiage would best help the city and school district work together to get more kids who’ve missed way too much school to graduate and participate fully as a successful citizens back to school.
There are a few other items up for discussion by this committee as well:
- A request to deny a limo/cab driver license for an applicant with a rap sheet as long as my arm and three currently pending legal actions (for forgery and retail theft).
- A request to deny a limo/cab driver license for another applicant who perhaps has gone in on some of the crimes perpetrated by the above applicant as her rap sheet closely mirrors that of the other applicant. This applicant, though, only has one open case — for forgery/misappropriate ID info used to obtain money. (Oof…)
- Requests to approve numerous cigarette/tobacco/electronic vaping device license renewals and new applications, a few new liquor licenses and change of agent forms, and a few temporary liquor licenses for upcoming summertime events.
Human Resources and Information Technology – 6:30pm There are two city department re-organization requests on the table for this committee’s discussion. The Department of Public Works (DPW) would like to reorganize the parking utility to eliminate one position and add a slightly different one (a couple pay grades higher). This change would be “absorbed” by the utility in the 2025 year with vacant salary dollars. But the requested change will no doubt cost the city more money in future budget years. I wonder if a change like this should be put on hold until the results of yet another consultancy review of the parking utility (approved by the council with a nay vote from your alderman) is complete.
The Finance Department is also looking to change some position titles/responsibilities within their department. The changes requested would likely lead to a near net-zero change to the overall departmental salary budget as the changes requested would take one position up one pay grade but take another position down one pay grade.
Another item up for discussion is the requested approval of a side agreement between Valley Transit and the bus drivers’ union (effective July 2025 through December 2026). This agreement is in response to the inability of Valley Transit to fill a Master Mechanic position. The agreement would allow for an increase in the pay offered for a Master Mechanic, the removal of ASE Certification as a qualification for that position, and the creation of a new position (Shop Foreman) by elevating the current Lead Mechanic position. The 2025 financial impact is an added ~$15,600 in pay which, per the memo accompanying this request, will be supported through the use of vacant salary dollars. But what does this mean for 2026 and forward…? That’s a question I’ll be asking.
The Information Technology (IT) Department for the city also has a request in for this committee: to allow for a 36-month agreement with TDS Metrocom for a backup internet circuit for the city. The approved budget for this circuit for 2025 is $14,000; but with a 36-month agreement, the cost per year will be ~$10,600. This seems reasonable… as long as there are not any hidden fees. You all know what I’m talking about when dealing with internet providers!
Thursday, 05/15/2025
Board of Review – 9am This board meets annually (sometimes for more than one day) to hear taxpayer requests for changes to city assessments on properties. This year, there are no taxpayer requests for changes so <fingers crossed> the meeting of this board will be a relatively short one. There are some procedural items on which to vote and some board member training to go through. The law requires that this board meet for a minimum of two hours… so perhaps a two-hour meeting is all it will take this year.
And that, my friends, is your weekly review of all that you can expect to hear about this week. If you have any ideas/comments/suggestions/
