Hello again, Neighbors! Thanks for tuning in again this week for another alderman blog post. If I haven’t mentioned it before, I appreciate when you tune in! I hope it helps you stay connected to what’s happening in our city government and gives you a chance to send your feedback to me on any items of interest and/or concern to you. That’s always been — and will continue to be — the goal of these posts.
This week, we are again in a Committee Meetings Week. There are a few cancellations this week… but also some meetings with some very interesting items to be discussed. Check out what’s on tap:
Monday, 03/24/2025
Municipal Services Committee – 4:30pm There are a couple of “ask” items from the construction folks who are revamping the 222 Building for US Venture — a long-term occupancy permit for the sidewalk on the College and Superior Avenue sides of the building “for debris catch” due to exterior facade repair through June 2025 and a long-term occupancy permit for a dumpster/construction loading in that same area until October 2025. The same sort of request is also being put forward by the construction company for a new pizzeria on the corner of East Washington and North Oneida Street until the end of May. The Trout Museum is also requesting that the city allow the creation of a No-Parking/15-Minute Loading Zone (taking up two parking stalls) in front of the middle of the College Avenue side of their new building (300 East College Avenue).
Of perhaps greatest interest on this agenda, though, is the potential approval of a “strategic plan and marketing study” for the city’s parking utility to the tune of $200,000. I believe this item to be an extraneous spend for the city as a similar study was completed for the city only a few years ago and nothing was done with it (no recommendations were taken or implemented). Other common council members are willing to approve this spending partially due to the recent acquisition of the 222 Building by US Venture (since their occupancy of that building will mean more parking downtown by US Venture employees). But it is my opinion that this excess city spending could be avoided should the city look to contract parking utility management to a private entity. This privatization option has not even been explored by the city and should be, in my opinion. I am not naive to the potential issues with privatization of this entity. But I am open to exploring all options, including privatization, and keeping the best interests of all Appleton taxpayers in mind when discussing this.
Most other council members are firmly “anti-privatization” without even being willing to look into the options available to the city. A municipal government is not in the business of managing a parking utility. That, in my opinion, is not a core competency for a local government. So why will the city not investigate what might be available with private management of these parking facilities…? The answer right now is that too many council members are unwilling to even think about that option long enough to explore all of the options before making a decision. They would rather spend $200,000 to plow forward with the only option they are willing to entertain. What are your thoughts in this regard? Are you willing, as a taxpayer, to keep subsidizing the parking utility (regardless of whether you use it) without looking into all of the options available to your city government for the parking utility?
Finance Committee – 5:30pm There are a number of contracts and other commitments for payment up for approval by this committee:
- The Central Equipment Agency (CEA) Review Committee report regarding CEA fleet vehicle purchases and changes this year.
- A sidewalk cutting contract for various locations throughout the city: $30,000
- A contract for mini storm sewer construction in various location in the city: $250,000
- A contract for lead/galvanized water service line replacement in various city locations: ~$486,000
- A repair/preventative maintenance contract for the city’s parking structures in 2025: ~$1.38M (Could this be managed differently with partial or full privatization of the city’s parking utility? Likely… but we will likely never know…)
- Acceptance of a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) safe drinking water loan: ~$614,000. The loan terms include 100% principal forgiveness meaning that the city will not need to repay these funds to the DNR.
- A ~$300,000 increase in a water/sewer construction contract due to relocation of a water main and sewer line along the north side of I-41 related to the state’s current I-41 expansion project. This work was originally planned for 2026; but there are funds available in the 2025 budget due to favorable bids elsewhere in the Department of Public Works (DPW) budget and this work will be reimbursed by the state so the DPW is hoping to have the work taken on this year.
- The use of some contingency funds in a contract for a generator control project at the Appleton Water Treatment Facility due to needed replacement of some aging high voltage electrical equipment (unknown at the time of the original contract): ~$50,000
- The transfer of ~$682,000 from another project at the Appleton Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWWTP) to a hardscapes/truck scale project at AWWTP. The initial hardscapes project (with a remaining budget of $893,400) was expanded to include the construction of an on-site truck scale, upping the quote from the contractor to ~$1.37M. The scale project was originally supposed to be a part of the project from which the ~$682,000 budget balance will come; so apparently it all will work out in the end.
The committee will also be asked to approve 2024 budget carryovers for projects not completed in that budget year for totals of ~$13.8M for items not under contract and ~$1.1M for items requesting special consideration. On the “special considerations” list are the following requests which I find egregious:
Under-budget funds should always go towards debt reduction for the city. Yet these items are buried in a “special considerations” spreadsheet to be spent on these proposed items without separate discussion on whether these things merit the spending of taxpayer dollars! This is an awful bait-and-switch, in my opinion.
Are you in favor of proposed spending of over $100,000 for a consultant to “create a sustainability and climate action plan” for the city (when the city already has a “sustainability expert” on the payroll and there is already an established “climate and sustainability panel” in place) when the budget item originally approved was for a park pavilion roof replacement project? Are you in favor of spending over $20,000 on “wayfinding signage for City Hall” (when nearly everyone in the world has a map in their pocket with smartphones!) when the budget items originally approved were for furniture upgrades for the Municipal Services Building ($7,316) and for fire station lighting upgrades ($12,690)? How do you feel about this — both the proposed new spending in lieu of paying down city debt and the fact that these new spending items seem to be sliding “under the radar” in approval of all “special consideration” budget carryovers?
Parks and Recreation Committee – 6:15pm This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items.
Tuesday, 03/24/2025
Fox Cities Transit Commission – 2:50pm Commission members will begin by reviewing and potentially approving the February 2025 payments. Then they will look to approve 1) the purchase of a maintenance support vehicle (a Chevy 4WD truck) for $64,650, 2) a contract for Northern Winnebago Dial-a-Ride services, 3) a renewed contract for Outagamie County Rural Service, and 4) a new contract for a security agency for the downtown transit center for $96,000 (one year estimate).
Utilities Committee – 4:30pm The one action item on this committee’s agenda is the acceptance of the DNR safe drinking water loan (mentioned above) for replacement of private lead water service lines in the city. As mentioned, this is a 100% principal forgiveness loan so would not cost the city (but is costing state taxpayers… as nothing is free!).
Wednesday, 03/24/2025
City Plan Commission – 3:30pm A stand-alone parking area (a full property used only for parking, without a building on it) in the Central Business District comes before this commission for approval. The property in question is a lot across North Appleton Street from City Hall on which there used to be a bank drive-thru which has now been removed. Approval of this looks to be a bit of a formality and is likely to be quick and painless as this lot is already partially used for parking anyway.
The only other item on their agenda is a request by Appleton Downtown, Inc. (ADI) for a “sculpture” in Houdini Plaza (mentioned here, here, and here). This item was referred back to committees by the full council last week (as per the request of the applicant). There is a new agenda attachment for this item, though — a request by the applicant for withdrawal of the request. It seems that this “sculpture” is not to be… at least for now.
Community Development Committee – 4:30pm This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items.
Safety and Licensing Committee – 5:30pm There are a number of liquor licenses, license agent changes, etc. to be reviewed and potentially approved by this committee. But sure to garner far more discussion are the following agenda items for this committee:
- The sole-sourcing purchase of a product called AxonAir for drone monitoring that syncs with a multitude of other Axon products (such as body cameras) used by the Appleton Police Department (APD). Sole-sourcing is necessary in this case as the seamless integration of all Axon products in the APD is important… and there are seemingly no competitive products to AxonAir on the market.
- Two “permanent premises amendments” for liquor licenses for the Appleton Hilton and Pullman’s at Trolley Square. I believe that separate entities within these two buildings have held multiple liquor licenses. I think that this action is to help the city free up some more regular liquor licenses by consolidating numerous ones at the same physical addresses.
- A reminder about the spring elections on April 1, 2025, and the early in-person voting at City Hall (dates and times listed on this webpage) for this upcoming election.
- And the item which will likely bring out the most robust discussion: a new resolution to bring back a truancy ordinance to the city’s municipal code. The resolution itself is delightfully void of any specifics on what the truancy ordinance should look like, what specifically it should say, how truancy violations be dealt with in the city.There will no doubt be some folks who are completely against a truancy ordinance in the city due to the history of one here (where “truancy court” apparently did not work well for some). And I think that passing a resolution such as this will require quite a bit of honing of the language of such an ordinance so that it does what the Appleton Area School District has asked of the council (last week at the full council meeting – summary here) and not be a sticking point for those who, no matter what, are vehemently opposed to any such ordinance. I personally believe that a reinstatement of a truancy ordinance is needed in the city. Local governance is how the state laws regarding truancy are enforced. But I know it will take a lot of discussion to determine just how the ordinance language will be structured and how the process of dealing with habitual truancy in Appleton will work so that the city does not run into the same problems that were dealt with in the years of “truancy court” here in the city.What are your thoughts on the reinstatement of a truancy ordinance in Appleton? Let me know your experiences and suggestions as to what might work best for the city in this regard. And be sure to attend this committee meeting if you have important points to add to this discussion.
Human Resources and Information Technology Committee – 6:30pm This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items.
So there you have it. Those meetings which are cancelled are more than made up for in the other hot-button topics to be discussed this week. Share with me any feedback you have regarding any of the above items. I’m always glad to hear from you.
Have a great last week of March 2025! Let’s hope if goes out like a lamb as it’s supposed to!
