Appleton City Council Update: June 21, 2026

• Utilities Committee
• City Plan Commission
• Community Development Committee
• Human Resources and Information Technology Committee

Municipal Services Committee – 4:30pm For a change of pace, this committee will only have one item to review and it will not require any approval this week.  There will be a public hearing only for another 2028 street reconstruction.  But this is for a very different street from a standard residential neighborhood street.  This project will be to reconstruct Franklin Street between Division and Drew Streets downtown.  The underground utilities in this stretch are quite aged and the pavement in tough shape.  And since this stretch of this street is decidedly in the city’s downtown area, the city’s special Downtown Streetscapes Guide led much of the city staff’s planning for this reconstruction.  The plan calls for 1) a narrowing of the street width from 44′ to 39′, 2) some on-street parking to be added where there currently is none, 3) curb extensions with stamped concrete at intersections to add to pedestrian/crossing safety and traffic calming, 4) a change from a street-light control to a two-way stop sign control at the intersection with Morrison Street, and 5) removal of existing bike lanes.  All of this will come with a ~$3M price tag (eek!).

The final item — removal of bike lanes on this stretch of roadway — will be, I think, a bit of an issue for some council members and bike enthusiasts in the city.  But city staff have evaluated the entire downtown Appleton bike lane network and believe that there is enough redundancy in the network to still adequately support bicycle traffic in the area.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding this proposed plan.

Finance Committee – 5:30pm This committee will look to approve several action items this week including:

• Rejection of the one bid received for a mini storm sewer project.  The only bid received exceeded the available budget for the project by nearly $100,000!  City staff is asking that the council reject this bid and that the budget funds be carried over into the 2027 budget year while the project is re-evaluated and perhaps revised in scope.  My main question will be: What will the city be missing out on due to this delay?
• Three action items all dealing with the city’s receipt of a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources grant for principal loan forgiveness for private homeowner lead water service line replacements.  The grant is for 50% principal forgiveness and amounts to over $400,000.  This will very much help those homeowners who are hoping to make their water safer with the removal of lead lines between their homes and the city supply line.

Parks and Recreation Committee – 6pm  There are three action items and three information items on this committee’s agenda.

What they will vote on:

• Approval of the use of Jones Park on Tuesday, 08/11/2026, from 4pm to 6:30pm for a private event hosted by US Venture.  Jones Park is unique for the city in that council approval is required for private event usage of it.
• Approval of extended alcohol sales later into the evening at Jones Park and Houdini Plaza for Mile of Music from 07/30/2026 to 08/02/2026.  Again, since these two areas are unique parks for the city, council approval is required for anything outside of the standard rules for them.  The standard time for the end of alcohol sales is 10pm.  But during “Mile” this year, extension of those times to 10:15pm and 10:45pm is requested.
• Approval of a concept plan for an improved veterans memorial area in Veterans Memorial Park.  See here for more details.  Nothing has yet been mentioned about the cost of any of the proposed plan.  But I’m sure we’ll hear more about that as this progresses.

What they’ll hear more about:

• The latest meeting minutes from the city’s all-volunteer Advisory Panel on Sustainability and Climate Resiliency.  The members of this panel are interested in improving communications with city government to make their activities more known to the public.
• A response from this Panel in support of the recent resolution regarding vegetation analysis in the city.  You’ll recall reading about this resolution in last week’s alderman blog post.  Note: The council voted to hold this resolution in council so no action was taken on it last week.
• A notice that Appleton has again earned the title of a Bird City Wisconsin.

Fox Cities Transit Commission – 2:50pm Commissioners will look to approve May 2026 payments made by Valley Transit and a renewal of a cellular service contract between Valley Transit and Cellcom.  As per usual, they will review the latest financial and ridership reports from Valley Transit as well.     

Safety and Licensing Committee – 5:30pm As has been the trend in recent Committee Meetings Weeks, this committee will have the most work to do.  There are two new resolutions for the committee to consider.  The first is a resolution for the city to flat-out cease any and all use of automated license plate reader (ALPR) camera systems (Flock brand and all others).  The second is a more measured approach to this ALPR camera systems issue that social media has forced to the foreground: a resolution to establish oversight and accountability standards for the use of any ALPR or “other mass surveillance technologies” in Appleton.

While I understand the complexities of the current debate over the Flock brand ALPR systems, I still believe that these ALPR technologies can and do have a positive impact on the solving of crimes throughout the city and the country.  So I believe that they should have a place in our city.  Flock brand systems may have a glaring flaw in that theirs is not a fully secure system (as many data leaks have been claimed and hackers have noted that theirs is an easy system into which bad actors can gain access).  But there are likely other more secure systems available which would provide the benefit of controlled crime-fighting surveillance without the hacking risks.  And the Appleton Police Department (APD) should be able to be equipped with a system such as this with reasonable and enforced boundaries for proper use of these systems.

Almost all of us carry on our person a device through which we are tracked — a cell phone.  These can, have, and most certainly will continue to be misused by bad actors in countless ways.  Yet we willingly carry and deploy them.  I view ALPR technologies, used within proper guidelines and protocols, as not much different than cell phones.  Honestly I feel a bit like… if you’re concerned about ALPR “tracking” you, perhaps don’t do anything illegal to be tracked!

Of course there can be misuse of an ALPR system such as when a Menasha police officer tracked his ex-girlfriend rather than using ALPR as intended for crime investigation.  But there can be misuse of nearly any technology and there are legal and internal controls for the proper use of these systems by police officers.  Using the system illegally and against his department’s internal controls is why that police officer lost his job and faced criminal charges for the misuse.  But now, public outcry is making our entire country want to “throw the baby out with the bath water.”

All of this to say that I have a general support of the latter resolution to gain some oversight over surveilling technologies used by the Appleton Police Department.  I want to hear more about this from the resolution authors and from the APD police chief.  What are your thoughts on these two resolutions and on ALPR use in general in the city?

The next action item for this committee is one termed “Flock Termination Final Recommendation” but which contains for further information on the posted agenda.  We will have to see whether the mayor attends the meeting and makes a verbal recommendation to the committee or what happens with this action item.  Stay tuned!

And the “fun” for this committee does not end there.  To wrap up this week, this committee moves on to the reconsideration of the resolution furthering discussion on an extension of the city’s truancy ordinance.  You’ll recall this from previous alderman blog postings (here and here).  This item was last week referred back to this committee rather than being voted on by the full council.  As I’ve mentioned previously, I believe that the council should at the very least extend the deadline for the trial period of the current truancy ordinance (currently to sunset at the end of this month) to allow for the entire school year’s data to be shared with the council before a decision to uphold or renew the ordinance for another school year is made.  I would honestly like to see the council extend the ordinance for at least one more school year to better see whether the purported benefits from this past school year will continue.  But I expect to hear more at this meeting about whether there is any time left to make anything regarding the current truancy ordinance happen as we quickly approach the current deadline.  In information items further down on this committee’s agenda this week is an item entitled “AASD Truancy Ordinance Update.”  So perhaps we will have all of the information supplied to us then.  But then where does that leave us with a truancy ordinance in the city?  What are your thoughts on this?  Would you like the ordinance to continue at least for another school year extended trial period?

I would love to hear your thoughts on any of the above items or anything else city-government-related.  Please share your feedback with me!  I’m glad that you read all the way through this week’s post (if you indeed did read this far… LOL!).  Thank you for continuing to be interested in your local government goings on and for the feedback you do provide your alderman.

Have a lovely week… and we’ll see you back here again next week!