Hello, Neighbors! Thanks for checking in for another Committee Meetings Week alderman blog post. I will start with your regular synopsis of the upcoming week’s meeting agendas and end with a bit of a recap of the passing of the resolution to increase of the Wheel Tax by 50%. Please skip to the bottom of the blog if you’re only interested in the latter.
This week’s meeting schedule includes a lot of cancellations… but here is what you can expect this week:
Monday, 06/24/2024
Municipal Services Committee – 4:30pm The “big ticket items” on this committee’s agenda are as follows:
- Discussion on whether picnic tables qualify as “tables and chairs” for Lil Taco just off of College Avenue on State Street: Lil Taco would like to keep three picnic tables on the amenity strip along State Street to accommodate late-night taco-eaters after bar time. Some on the council are ok with tables and chairs in the amenity strip that are removable every night when the establishment closes but are not comfortable with picnic tables that remain 24/7. Apparently, this area is a “hot spot” for after-bar-hours altercations… so I understand the concerns. But an establishment is not at fault for its patrons’ actions. What are your thoughts on disallowing picnic tables but allowing tables and chairs?
- Discussion on the potential removal of No Mow May: Alderman Chris Croat created a resolution to remove No Mow May after seeing the results this year — ridiculously long lawns with nothing but grasses going to seed, long grasses in which pests hide and breed, and no obvious residual value to pollinators. Discussion on this resolution was held during the last meeting of this committee due to time constraints.None of the council members in this city is against supporting pollinators… but many (including your alderman) feel that this open policy allowing anyone regardless of intention to let their lawns grow in May is not working to the overall betterment of Appleton or the pollinators living here. The view, as they say, is not worth the climb. The city and its citizens are experiencing more negative consequences due to this policy than it seems to be helping the pollinator population. I believe that the city needs to take a better look at its policies meant to support pollinators and move from this No Mow May — which causes decidedly negative unintentional consequences — to a policy that would work better for all of Appleton and Appletonians. Kaukauna and the 1000 Islands Environmental Center have the following non-No Mow May policy that would likely be much better for Appleton. It seems a much better half-way point between a wide-open no-mow policy which causes neighborhood disharmony and more negative consequences than it does positive and a policy which can provide the best of both worlds — possible increased benefit to pollinators without a month of an unsightly city with increased pest populations.
What are your thoughts after this year’s No Mow May? Do you have thoughts on alternatives? What would be best for the overall best for the city overall and for pollinators?
Finance Committee – 5:30pm There is a new 2025 Special Assessment Policy up for approval. The only change to the 2024 policy is a proposed increase in one assessment rate from $52/lineal foot to $55/lineal foot for 4-6′ sanitary sewer laterals to reflect recent increased bid prices.
Parks and Recreation Committee – 6:15pm This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items.
Tuesday, 06/25/2024
Library Board – Personnel and Policy Subcommittee – 8:30am This subcommittee will present and review the mid-year performance review for the Library Director and then move on to reviewing and looking to remove the library’s “policy policy.” This is the fun stuff that local government is made of, folks.
Fox Cities Transit Commission – 2:50pm This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items.
Utilities Committee – 4:30pm This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items.
Wednesday, 06/26/2024
City Plan Commission – 3:30pm This meeting has been cancelled due to l/ack of agenda items.
Community Development Committee – 4:30pm This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items.
Safety and Licensing Committee – 5:30pm This committee will hold a liquor license non-renewal hearing for Corner Pub on Mason Street. According to city inspection reports, this establishment is not in physical condition to be open and serve liquor yet their liquor license is up for renewal. The hearing will establish whether the renewal will be granted (even though it looks as though the license cannot be used as yet due to building conditions) or denied due to the building conditions. Since the city has limited full liquor licenses available, I would be interested in denying renewal of licenses if they are not being or cannot be used… so that other establishments can obtain liquor licenses and strive to be successful businesses in the City of Appleton! I will be interested to hear what this applicant will say about the condition of the building and why a liquor license should be grated them even though they apparently can’t use it.
Committee members will also take up a potential liquor license application for an establishment proposed to be run by some members of a family associated with the 2020/21 federal drug charges involving the Mr Taco establishment in Kimberly. The applicant on this license application was not federally charged in the 2020/21 case; but she was closely investigated in the case and found to be complicit in the drug trafficking from that establishment. An Appleton Police Department (APD) memo requests the denial of the license application due to this applicant’s involvement in that case. I agree that this applicant is a person of concern and that a liquor license for her establishment could allow a potential business in downtown Appleton to be involved in drug trafficking. What are your thoughts?
Included in the agenda is an informational item regarding the current status of available liquor licenses in the city. Please see here for that information and let me know if you have any questions.
Human Resources and Information Technology Committee – 6:30pm This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items.
Wheel Tax 50% Increase – Effective 01/01/2025 As you have by now likely heard, the majority of the common council (by a vote count of 8-7) voted last week to approve a 50% increase the City of Appleton Wheel Tax from the current $20/vehicle to $30/vehicle, effective in 2025. The photo below shows the vote count. (Council votes are shown in district order with District 1 being represented by Alderman Siebers and District 15 being represented by Alderman Doran.)
I have continually argued that the Wheel Tax, though positive in that it removed a very property-owner-unfortunate policy of special assessments for street reconstruction projects, is not the best way for the city to move forward in funding road reconstruction projects. The Wheel Tax program (allowed through state laws) is flawed in that it is not equitably assessed on all vehicular users of roadways in the city. Large commercial vehicles and other specialty plated vehicles are not assessed a wheel tax per state laws. Roadway users registering vehicles outside of the city limits are not assessed either despite the fact that many of them are regular users of city roadways. These are just some of the shortcomings of this type of tax. There has got to be a better way to deal with the issues of road reconstruction in this city than doubling down on assessing personal vehicle owners only a tax that does not nearly cover the city’s road reconstruction costs year after year.
Despite its shortcomings, a wheel tax is a better alternative to a return of special assessments for road reconstruction. But that’s not what’s at issue here…
I urged fellow council members to deny the resolution for the wheel tax increase in favor of challenging the city budget and the mayor to better address roadway repair and replacement issues within the confines of the city budget. But the appeal of the “easy button” was too much for the aldermen noted above in green who voted to approve this increase and therefore penalize you, vehicle owners in this city.
I am frustrated by the outcome of this close vote — an increase in a regressive fee/tax for vehicles registered in the city when a true deeper dive into road reconstruction should be addressed by this council is required. The approval of this increase does very little to address the deep systemic infrastructure funding problems in the city budget. City budgeting for years now has not prioritized infrastructure upkeep and reconstruction even though this is a core competency and one of the primary functions of a municipality. This vote to increase the Wheel Tax is an insult that two aldermen suggested and then the above aye-voting aldermen approved without any concrete plan for addressing the real elephant in the room — a higher road reconstruction cost than just this fee increase will fix.
When the final votes were registered and the increase was approved by the majority, one co-author of the resolution seated next to me actually cheered. This illustrates how dysfunctional the Common Council in this city is.
I will continue to press for systemic change in this regard. But… you can see by the vote above that the logic of an entirely different and budget-based prioritizing approach to infrastructure maintenance seems to be lost on the majority of the current common council members and the mayor. The latter seems to prefer preparing a budget without true regard for these concerns and then blaming the council for inaction in the prioritizing of infrastructure improvement in the city through budget amendments (usually long past the point at which the council has any leeway to make significant budget changes) and the state government for not providing more by way of shared revenue (which, though that is a problem, is not something the city can do much about so the solutions need to come from within the city budget where he and the council actually can make changes).
Please share with me your input and feedback on this approaching tax increase and any other city budget thoughts and concerns you might have. I suspect that many who have wanted to live in this city will choose not to move here due to the continual increase in fees and the corresponding decline in city infrastructure here in the City of Appleton. I also suspect that many who do live in the city now are already planning an exodus to surrounding municipalities which do not impose these added fees and a wheel tax. (No other communities surrounding the city have a wheel tax except a $10/vehicle one in Kaukauna.) There are no two ways about it: This wheel tax increase in Appleton is not a positive move for growing this city.
I look forward to hearing from you! Thanks again for reading. I hope you have an excellent last week of June 2024. (Can you believe it?!) I’ll see you back here in a week.
