Happy Post-Holidays, Neighbors. It’s the second full week of January 2024 and a Committee Meetings Week. But city committees are just getting back into the swing of things with some meetings scheduled and some again cancelled due to lack of agenda items. The following committees will not meet this week:
- Fox Cities Transit Commission
- Utilities Committee
- Board of Health (Side note: These lucky folks get to sleep in a bit on 01/09/2024!)
- Appleton Redevelopment Authority (which does not meet regularly but had a scheduled meeting day this week which has subsequently been cancelled)
- City Plan Commission
- Human Resources and Information Technology Committee
- Community and Economic Development Committee
So, I guess you’re wondering “What’s left? Who will be meeting this week?” Well, look no further for the answer…
Monday, 01/08/2024
Municipal Services Committee – 4:30pm There are a couple of resolutions from last year on this committee’s agenda.
First is a resolution which was referred to the Department of Public Works (DPW) staff for more information when it initially came to this committee — Resolution 12-R-23 Closure of the Whitman Avenue Yard Waste Site. The resolution was presented to help to curb some expenses of the city’s DPW by reducing the amount of staff required to manage two separate dump sites in the city (Whitman Avenue and Glendale Avenue). Two waste sites for one city is obviously a duplication of services. And the city is also able to refer users to the Outagamie County waste site which is fully staffed regularly and has a larger capacity than either of the city’s sites. However, there are some complications to a plan to close the Whitman site… namely that the city has an agreement with the Town of Grand Chute to allow town residents to use the Whitman Avenue site in exchange for a payment ($55,000 for 2019 and a +3% increase per year thereafter) from the town to the city. DPW staff prepared a memo in this regard, answering some of the council members’ questions. But more will need to be discussed at this meeting before I believe the council can make a good decision on this resolution. What are your thoughts on this duplication of services? I believe there would be some savings with the closure plan but am concerned about the financial impact that this might cause the city if the Town of Grand Chute agreement ($55,000/year+ payment per year) is to be modified or cancelled. I’ll be interested in hearing what comes of this committee discussion.
The other resolution on the agenda for (re)discussion is one requesting a consultant study of the city’s parking utility management (mentioned here when it first came up for committee discussion). This resolution was recommended for denial by this committee before the last full council meeting of 2023 but was referred back to this committee since the committee chairman was not present at the original committee meeting discussion. I am very interested in supporting this resolution as I believe that we have much to glean from an outside/third-party review of how the city’s parking utility is run and why this city’s taxpayers need to continually support the parking utility in the city budget as it runs “in the red.” What are your thoughts in this regard?
Other items up for discussion and potential approval by this committee include a couple of sole-source contracts for bridge consulting services (a total of ~$68,000) and design management for the repair and maintenance of the city’s parking ramps ($68,200 for design only on an estimated $1.2M of ramp repairs and maintenance in 2024). Please note that the latter is part of the reason I believe the city needs a comprehensive parking utility study… soon!
Finance Committee – 5:30pm This committee will also look to approve some contracts for 2024 work and other finance-related transactions:
- A contract for library signage for nearly $200,000 (within a budget of $250,000) from one bidder. No other bids were submitted to the city for this work.
- A contract for engineering for HVAC upgrades to an Appleton Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWWTP) building for ~$165,000 (within an engineering budget of $175,000)
- Another contract for upgrading another AWWTP building’s HVAC system for which bids, including contingencies, have come in ~$54,000 over budget. This one will require a transfer from another project/budget line item (which, per staff, is currently coming in under budget) for approval.
- Yet another AWWTP project contract which will require another budget transfer (this time $60,000) from another project that is coming in under budget. Considering this is still January 2024, I wonder how long before the city runs out of projects that are coming in under budget from which budget dollars can be borrowed…!
- Approval of the accounting write offs of ~$75,000 of accounts receivable (constituent/other unpaid fees to the city) and ~$17,000 of unpaid personal property taxes. The individual bills/taxes have been unpaid for over one year and the city’s accounting practice is to write them off rather than keep them “on the books” for years. The city finance department, however, will not stop attempting to collect these fees/taxes that are rightfully due to the city. This request is simply to allow for a cleaner set of accounting records.
- A request to completely use all of the contingency on a contract for the city’s redundant raw water line project for a total of ~$176,000 more cost for this project due to such things as “poor soils” and items “differing from plans.” I’m concerned, of course, about the latter. When we make plans and budget based upon those plans, we should be concerned when the plans prove to be incorrect. (Most often these are plans from external contractors paid by the city.)
- The request to approve the contract for the water/sewer line and bridge construction and grade and gravel for the extension of Lightning Drive. This is a big one for District 13 for which many contractors have been waiting for years! The contract up for approval also comes in under budget. So I will happily approve this to help grow the city and District 13.
- A request for a sole sourcing of the fifth year of a five-year hardscapes project at the AWWTP. It’s unclear whether this one comes in on budget; but I will be asking if it does.
- A furniture/fixtures contract (for about ~$189,000) for the city’s Municipal Services Building. This one, too, is unclear as to whether the anticipated contract is on or under the budgeted dollar figure.
Do you have any thoughts or concerns regarding the above? Please share your feedback with me.
Parks and Recreation Committee – 6:15pm This committee will revisit two revised fee schedules (for the use of Jones Park and the use of Houdini Plaza) both of which were quickly approved by this committee in their last meeting on 12/11/2023. A member of the committee who did not attend that meeting referred these items back to the committee so that he could be involved in a lengthier discussion regarding these fee revision. I wrote briefly about these changes here. (Side note: These proposed revisions are where I last mentioned my concern that the use of “gender neutral language” often makes city policies grammatically incorrect. See page 4 of this proposed policy for one small example of how proper grammar is being sacrificed in official city communications.) I am not concerned that there is anything egregious (besides the poor grammar) in the proposed changes so I doubt that this week’s meeting to rehash these items will be substantially longer than the original meeting in which these changes were first approved by this committee.
Wednesday, 01/10/2024
Safety and Licensing Committee – 5:30pm This committee’s agenda begins with a recommendation to deny an alcohol liquor operator’s (bartender’s) license to an applicant (Andrew DeRuyter) due to convictions of child abuse and sexual assault on the applicant’s record. State laws, noted in a memo to this committee from the Appleton Police Department (APD), state that this application must be denied… so this item on the agenda seems a formality. The committee will also hear from the City Clerk regarding a spring primary election (in February) and the Police Chief regarding hiring/retirements/promotions within the APD.
As you can see, even though it’s a pared-back meeting schedule, there is a lot of discussion to be had this week in city meetings. Please let me know if anything above is of concern to you or if you have any other questions or feedback for me.
Until next week — the week of our first Full Council Meeting of 2024 — I bid you farewell. I hope you have a great week ahead and look forward to our “meeting” for another blog post a week from now. Thanks for tuning in!
