Hi again, Neighbors! It’s Full Council Meeting Week again in City of Appleton government. So, of course the full council meets on Wednesday. This week, though, there are a surprising number of other meetings scheduled as well. Take a look at what you can expect:
Monday, 05/19/2025
Board of Zoning Appeals – 7pmIt’s good (for me!) to see this board meeting again. As you know if you’ve been a long-time reader of the alderman blog, this board is one of my favorites. Anyway… they haven’t met since December 2024 and are meeting this time to hear only one variance request. It seems that the owners of 719 S Memorial Drive have erected a tall/solid fence (without permit) in their front yard and are now coming forward for a variance request to be allowed to keep it in their front yard. While I feel for folks who’ve erroneously made these kinds of moves, this one is a real issue as the fence is truly in the property’s front yard, right up against the sidewalk off the street. There are no unique features of this property/lot that would allow for the granting of a variance for this fence. And, while the owners don’t want to follow municipal code and keep their fencing out of the front yard setback area, they could do so and therefore have a legally conforming fence. Not having a variance for this fencing in their front yard does not render this property useless. So that means that the standards for granting a variance have not been met. We will have to see, though, whether the members of this board uphold the code and variance request requirements. Their decisions can be unpredictable. (Read more about this request in the staff memo clearly stating how the variance request requirements are not met in this case.)
Tuesday, 05/20/2025
Library Board (Location: Appleton Public Library, Cornerstone Conference Room) – 5pmThis board will meet to go over 1) introductions of new and reappointed trustees, 2) the April 2025 bill registry and a small proposed budget amendment, 3) the city’s new social media policy, and 4) administrative and staff reports on the latest happenings at the library.
Wednesday, 05/21/2025
City of Appleton Common Council – 7pmAfter the mayor starts things off with two proclamations, we get right down to business with the items that passed through committee meetings last week. We’ll also revisit one of the items that’s been hanging over the city for quite a few weeks that was held at the last full council meeting. Here are the items most likely to garner separate further conversation at this meeting and/or are of importance to District 13:
- From the Municipal Services Committee: It is expected that the full council will affirm this committee’s recommendation to approve the additional stop signs at the corners of Ashbury and Lightning and Providence and Ashbury. Full council approval will make these two intersections into four-way stops and have crossing guard control at the intersection of Ashbury and Lightning during school days. It will certainly be a change for many of us who drive this route daily; but I believe it’s needed to slow traffic in these areas and keep drivers more aware of the pedestrian traffic around our schools. Do you agree?
- From the City Plan Commission: Commissioners approved and now we await the full council approval of the annexation of the so-called Dewitt Development Partners Annexation consisting of ~73 acres north of the Emerald Estates subdivision (accessible by French Road on the east and the newest Lightning Drive extension on the west). This annexation will really grow the City of Appleton — and District 13! — with an expected future zoning for both one- and two-family homes.
- From the Finance Committee: There is a budget amendment on the table to allow the city to receive ~$7.9M of the Friends of the Appleton Public Library private funds raised for the library reconstruction project. I am told that the Friends fundraising did reach the goal of $12M in private contributions to this project and that this influx is only a portion of that full amount. I was also informed that a bridge loan has been secured (presumably by the Friends) to pay the city any portion of this $12M that is not readily available to pay the city on the library project (any delayed contributions from private donors).
- Held from the last full council meeting: Since there were quite a few members of the council absent from the last full council meeting, the discussion and ultimate vote on using borrowed funds over $100,000 to pay a consultant to create a “climate action plan” for the city was held. We will now finally be talking about this and holding a vote on whether to proceed with this request — “delightfully” without any defined deliverables or “guard rails” — to spend these borrowed funds in this manner. You can see in my latest blog post in this regard (and previous posts linked therein), that I am not at all on board with this request, at this time, in this manner.The council needs to hear from more of you your opinions in this regard! If you agree that this request is
1) poorly crafted: without any specifics requested from a consultant with the potential of a huge check to cash,
2) poorly timed: requesting to use borrowed funds because a capital project in the city in 2024 came in significantly under budget, and
3) without immediate need: if the request is further honed and comes forward later this year in budget discussions using operational funding rather than borrowed funding, it could truly be considered,please share your thoughts with all of the council members either via email to all or by attending this council meeting and making your thoughts known!
Before the last scheduled discussion of this item (two weeks ago), I wrote the following to be presented to the members of the council that were present that night. (It was not read as the item was held before discussion that night began.)
“Re: 25-0300 2024 – 2025 Budget Carryover Appropriations (sub-section Facilities Capital Project Amount $107,625)
Colleagues, I respectfully urge you please to follow the recommendations of the Finance Committee in denying the current request for the use of borrowed funds for an as yet very vague idea of hiring a consultant to prepare a “climate action plan” for the city. I hope that you were all able to listen to the robust discussion that was had in the latest Finance Committee consideration of this item. I hope that from that, you understand that the recommendation for denial comes from committee members seeing a distinct lack of direction in this request and their seeing how this is an inappropriate item on which to spend borrowed funds.
We owe it to the taxpayers of this city to send this request back to the proverbial drawing board for further honing of the idea and for a proper use of general funds from departmental budgets to support such an endeavor… should it even be needed in our city.
The need, in my mind, is still not well established. We were told that Director Gazza feels as though he is in a rowboat without a paddle. That, though, is not enough to justify an over-$100,000 spend on a consultancy for which there are no parameters yet set nor any well defined end products yet requested. We do not even know what we would be requesting, much less what results will come with this excessive price tag. If the need is truly there and can be proven and justified during regular annual budget discussions, the cost of any consultancy to support it should come from departmental budgets, not from borrowed carryover funds from a project which happened to come in under-budget.
A member of the Climate Resilience Committee and former alderman, Charlie Goff, reached out to me via email a couple of weeks ago to ask if this item could be referred back to committee “for a review of scope and potential cost reduction” (his words). I believe that, instead, it’s time to send this entire idea back to staff for a much finer honing of the request, a better justification of the true need, and a way in which to not use borrowed funding to support the effort. Mr. Goff stated in his note to me that the city previously hired a consultant to prepare a greenhouse gas inventory for the 2021 Climate Action Plan proposal and that the results of that consultancy spend – he openly admitted – were “inaccurate and incomplete, requiring us to redo the emissions inventory from the ground up” (again, his words). This, too, does not bode well for the expense of further consultants in this sort of effort, especially without city staff’s extensive preparation of a full scope-of-work definition and request for specific deliverables.
I urge you, Colleagues, to think critically about this request at this time, in this manner and, rather than pushing the “go” button on an initiative simply due to the presence of the buzz words “climate action plan,” I ask you to please affirm the Finance Committee’s recommendation. With a denial at this time, more effort can be made to save the taxpayers of this city with well thought out ideas and plans rather than a hastily requested unclear use of excess borrowed funds.”
If you agree with any of the above, please contact me (and/or all of the council members) right away to make your opinion known!
- The “closed session” notice that was included on the last full council agenda is again posted in the agenda for this week’s meeting. If you recall, the notice referenced “matters associated with the flooding that occurred in July, 2024.” During the last full council meeting, no closed session occurred. So council members will apparently hear this week what was to be presented a couple of weeks ago. As per usual, I will share with you anything that I learn when I am legally able to do so.
Thursday, 05/22/2025
Board of Review – 2pm As I mentioned in the last blog post, this board, which usually meets only once a year, held a meeting last week. This week’s meeting is essentially a continuation from last week as one taxpayer petitioned for a review of the assessed value on two lots he owns on Purdy Parkway (each on an opposite side of the lot on which his home stands). His appeal request was received right at the end of the last meeting of this board so discussion and a decision on affirming or changing the city assessors formal opinion on the value of those lots is scheduled for this week.
And that will wrap up the week of city government meetings in Appleton. Do you have any questions, comments, or concerns in regards to any of the above mentioned topics/action items? If so, please do reach out and let me know. Share any other questions or concerns on city-government-related issues with me any time as well. I’m always happy to hear from you!
Let’s hope that we get our warmer summer temperatures back quickly this week. Have a great week and we’ll “see” you back here for another alderman blog post next week!
