Appleton City Council Update: April 13, 2025

Here is your regular rundown of what meetings are scheduled and the top items on the agenda for these meetings:

Library Board – Meeting Place: Appleton Public Library, Cornerstone Conference Room – 5pm Board members will begin by reviewing and potentially approving the March 2025 bill register and financial reporting.  They’ll move on to the potential approval of a small budget amendment and a budget carryover request of some 2024 grant funds to be spent in 2025.  A Wisconsin Public Library Trustee Essentials Overview will also be presented.  You can view the 164 pages of that here if you’re interested.

City of Appleton Common Council – Informal Organizational Meeting – 6pmAt 5pm in Fox Commons (next door to City Hall), there will be swearing in ceremony for the newly elected/re-elected aldermen in the city’s odd-numbered districts.  Right after, those aldermen and their counterparts in the even-numbered districts will convene this informal organizational meeting in council chambers.  An informal organizational meeting like this takes place with each new council year.  All aldermen will be asked to review the current rules of the council and amend them as they see fit (by majority rule).  The council Code of Conduct and Department and Committee Functions documents will also be reviewed.

There is one resolution regarding council member attendance on the table for discussion and potential approval.  It states that if any council member incurs three unexcused absences from any council/committee meetings, that alderman will forfeit his/her committee assignments for the council year.  This resolution came forward due to the repeated non-participation — and non-prenotification of anticipated absences (meaning: unexcused absences) — of one particular alderman in council/committee meetings.  I understand the reason for this resolution; but I doubt that the verbiage in this resolution will solve the problem it is meant to address.  If an alderman cares so little about participating in council business, he/she will not care if he/she is removed completely from the work of a committee!  There should instead be pressure put on by the constituents of a non-participating alderman.  But unless you’re paying attention, how are you to know if you are being properly represented by your alderman?  (I hope that your regular reading of these blog posts assures you that your district is being actively represented in committee and council meetings!)

Let me know your thoughts and concerns about this resolution or any of the council rules up for debate/potential amendment/approval.  Last year, I attempted to institute a rule requiring proper attire for council members in attendance at committee/council meetings.  My proposed rule was roundly defeated by the council at that time.  Apparently, dressing appropriately — no wearing of hats/caps and a standard of at least business casual attire — is not important to the majority of members of the council.  Some of us, though, still do attempt to dress appropriately when representing you in city meetings regardless of whether there is a formal council rule in that regard.

City of Appleton Common Council – Formal Organizational Meeting – 6pmThis meeting will be the formal version of the previous evening’s informal meeting.  Anything discussed or proposed at the informal meeting will be up for formal vote by the new council at this meeting.  We will not know until after the Tuesday night meeting if there will be any significant rule changes or additions proposed so I can’t speculate here.  But watch your alderman’s Facebook page for posts regarding anything glaring that will require public comment!  Last year, there was an attempt to remove the Pledge of Allegiance from our committee/council meetings.  I would hate for that to come up again and none of the citizens of Appleton know how little some members of the council value that requirement!

City of Appleton Common Council – 7pm The mayor gets the ball rolling in this new council year with a presentation of the 2025 Sidewalk Poetry competition winners.  Interestingly, the winning poems have not been pre-published in the agenda for this meeting… so we have yet to hear what we will eventually see on city sidewalks in the near future.  The mayor will also present six — yes! We’re back in “proclamation season” — proclamations for Arbor Day, Autism Acceptance Month, Earth Day, Golden Rule Day, Hemophilia Awareness Day, and Public Health Week.

Then we’ll move into the heart of the action items on the agenda.  The highlights are as follows:

• From the Municipal Services Committee:  The seemingly late-in-the-game request for a two-parking-stall loading zone in front of the new Trout Museum on College Avenue was approved on a six-month trial basis by this committee last week.  I am still concerned about the way that this all “went down.”  The new building for the Trout Museum (which includes some apartments and Lawrence University space) has been in the works for months.  Yet seemingly minutes before it is ready to open, this request for a loading zone which will take up prime parking space on College Avenue shows up for approval.  Someone missed an excellent opportunity to build community in that area by waiting this long to bring this forward and not alerting neighboring businesses to the plan.  And I feel for them.  However, during the committee discussions, some evidence from the city’s traffic engineers was presented showing that there are regularly open parking spots available along that block of College Avenue during all times of the day.  So, this six-month trial should, in theory, make it evident to neighboring businesses that the loading zone parking should not stifle their ability to draw patrons.  I’ll be interested to hear the feedback at the end of this trial period to see what real-life impact has been felt with this.
• From the Safety and Licensing Committee:  Two items that were brought before this committee at last week’s meeting are up for denial by the full council — 1) a liquor license for an establishment at 122 W Wisconsin Avenue that has a long history of illegal activity (in Wisconsin and in Minnesota) and has not, in the past, been a good neighbor in this mixed residential/business area of the city and 2) a change of agent request on a current liquor license for a business in which the currently listed agent is now (or was recently) incarcerated for alcohol-related charges and there were some irregularities in the agent change paperwork submitted.  See here more information regarding the latter and here for more of what was discussed regarding the former.  I am in agreement with both denials as liquor licensure is a privilege in the city and comes with a high bar of requiring proper paperwork and a clean (or at least clean-ish) record of the license holder/agent.
  
  
• From the City Plan Commission:  Without much discussion or fanfare, the commission last week recommended for approval a large annexation to the city — the Dorn property on the east side of Richmond Street just south of CTH JJ — and the proposed pavilion coming to Lundgaard Park soon.  See here for more information on the proposed pavilion design and placement.

I hope that we are turning the corner on spring weather this week here in Appleton!  The city is getting ready for final concrete construction on a number of District 13 streets — all or parts of Rubyred Drive, Denali Trail, Aquamarine Avenue, Cherryvale Avenue, Baldeagle Drive, Osprey Drive, Harrier Court, and Providence Avenue — so neighbors with homes along those streets should have received (or will soon receive) notice that mailboxes along these streets will be relocated for the duration of the road construction.  Affected homeowners are responsible for removal of their current mailboxes at the street and replacement of them after construction concludes.  If you have any questions in this regard, please let me know.

Well… until next week’s post… I wish you an excellent mid-April week.  I look forward to starting this new term once again serving you as your alderman.  “See” you again soon!