Hello, Neighbors! Thanks for joining me on this big Wisconsin sports day for another alderman blog post. It’s the Sunday of a Committee Meetings Week so we have lots to go over today. Follow along as usual with the week’s schedule below:
Monday, 10/12/2026
Municipal Services Committee – 4:30pm This committee will be looking to approve a contract for additional funds for engineering design for the repair and remodel of the elevator lobbies at each of the parking ramps, a request to approve a permanent street occupancy permit for tree up-lighting along a short stretch of College Avenue, and several requests to approve various traffic control signage in a new subdivision and at a couple of trouble-spot intersections in the city. Nothing on this agenda seems out of the ordinary or of grave concern for the city.
Finance Committee – 5:30pm This committee has only a couple of action items on their agenda. But the information items to discuss are of some real concern. The committee will first look to approve the acceptance of a $425,000 Rep. Tony Wied Community Project Funding Grant and the use of those funds for the Appleton Police Department (APD) to sole-source purchase a Boston Dynamics Spot robot for use in high-risk situations. Then they will look to approve an updated special assessments policy for 2027. The main changes proposed for this policy include treating properties on the insides of curved streets as “corner lots” and defining the maximum width of sidewalks (not including in new subdivisions) as 7′ instead of the old standard 5′.
But of primary importance to me — and you, too, I hope — is an information item regarding the 2027 Executive Budget and Service Plan. The mayor was set to present the proposed budget and provide copies of it to the council last Wednesday at the last full council meeting. However, he announced at the meeting that the budget roll up is not yet completed… so no budget documents were available to us for review! We are still “budget-less” as of today! And the mayor also mentioned — but glossed over — the fact that the City of Appleton did not complete and submit a financial audit for last year to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue (WisDOR) before the prescribed deadline. As such, the City is set to incur a financial penalty in the form of a reduction in the amount of funds received from the state — to the tune of over $300k! This is unacceptable, a mess, a true issue of importance. Read here for more information on this missed audit deadline. So… we need to make sure that there is true transparency in reporting of this issue, that taxpayers are truly informed of the issues here and how they will be rectified. What are your thoughts on this Finance Department debacle?
Parks and Recreation Committee – 6pm Once again, this committee will have only information items to discuss. The item of highest interest is discussion surrounding the top nine selections for the proposed new name for the “old” Veterans Park. If you’ve not yet seen information on this, check out this chart explaining the submitting citizens’ suggestions for these options. No decisions will be made at this committee meeting and no voting will occur on this at this time. But there will be discussion of the options here. So please attend and share your thoughts if you have an interest in this process. You can also email me to let me know your thoughts on the suggestions and point out your favorites. I believe that the next time this committee meets, they will vote on a recommendation for the full council’s vote (likely on 10/28/2026).
Tuesday, 10/13/2026
Fox Cities Transit Commission – 2:50pm This meeting has been cancelled.
Utilities Committee – 4:30pm There is only one action item up for review and potential approval by this committee: a request to approve a contract to use state grant money for public outreach regarding the importance of lead water line service replacement. The city received just over $93,500 from the state to help educate the public on the importance of replacing lead water service lines. Of that, the city will retain $15,000 for city administrative time to manage this outreach. But the remaining amount (approximately $78,500) is available for this contractor. And not surprisingly… the contractor bid was for $73,500 with a $5,000 contingency.
Wednesday, 10/14/2026
Board of Health – 7am Early-riser board members will only show up to review some information items:
- The 2025 Annual Report of the Appleton Health Department
- The latest “virus surveillance” wastewater report (We are still doing this?)
- The October 2026 Health Department newsletter and
- A report of the latest noise variances granted administratively by the health department
City Plan Commission – 3:30pm One rezoning request — from Planned Development/General Commercial to General Commercial — is on this commission’s agenda for the week. The property — the site of Memorial Florists on Memorial Drive — was annexed into the city in 2001 and was zoned at that time to a Planned Development overlay district despite the lack of a planned development at that time. Since then, though, no further development plan was presented or approved… so now the property owners want a rezoning so that their proposed property improvements can take place.
Community Development Committee – 4:30pm Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) for 2027 will be the focus of a public hearing and the first information item for this committee. This will be the second public hearing in this regard (as required by law). A second information item for this committee is an announcement that Homeowner Rehabilitation Loan Program applications are being accepted by the city for Fall 2026. See here for more information.
Safety and Licensing Committee – 5:30pm This meeting will begin with five demerit point appearances for liquor license holders:
- Appleton Axe for another instance of dispensing alcohol to a minor. They now have 160 demerit points.
- Appleton Yacht Club also for another instance of dispensing alcohol to a minor. They also now have 160 demerit points.
- The Daily Pint with their first instance of dispensing alcohol to a minor. They have only these demerit points on their record.
- Rascal’s Bar and Grill with a big one — sale of alcohol to an intoxicated person — for 80 demerit points on top of their already high demerit point count. This establishment has a total of 240 demerit points racked up. I expect to hear more at this meeting about whether there will be a license suspension or revocation due to this demerit point count.
- Apollon with their first instance of dispensing alcohol to a minor. This establishment, too, only has this one demerit point violation on their record.
Then the committee moves on to action items on the agenda. Here is a summary:
- The proposed denial of a bartender’s license application. The applicant in this case has a criminal record that will not allow him to legally be granted a bartender’s license. He was convicted of battery in 2009 but also has some recent violations including two convictions for Operating While Intoxicated and a third potential OWI pending.
- The revisiting of Resolution #14-R-26 proposing to substantially increase the monetary fines for vehicle noise within the city limits. (This was mentioned here in an earlier alderman blog post.) When this resolution was last discussed, the city’s legal department was tasked with evaluating whether these proposed increased fines could result in some unforeseen issues, including with adjudication (i.e. increased work load for the legal department in the court system and many more legal challenges to the fines than are currently experienced). The memo from the legal department posted for this week’s discussion references extensive research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) regarding increased fines for traffic violations. The memo includes these sentences: “The compiled research suggests that high increases to fines, specifically increases over 100%, can lead to increases in violations because the public begins to see the penalties as unfair and predatory. The public begins to see them as being intended to generate revenue rather than to promote public safety goals. The research further suggests that when people perceive the legal system as illegitimate or unfair, their compliance with the law decreases rather than increases.” Another important point in this discussion is that “if the sizeable monetary penalty does not result in a decrease in the issuance of citations, it is likely to lead to a significant increase in the rate at which such citations are challenged and contested at trial… It would leave City prosecutors with little room to negotiate resolutions that could lead to more internally motivated compliance.” With these points in mind, I think that the resolution should at the very least be amended to lower the proposed increase in fines to somewhere between the current fine amount and the excessively large fines proposed in the resolution as written. What do you think about this? Where do you see the “sweet spot” for this? Honestly, I do not see an increase in these fines as a truly successful way to limit tire squealing and other traffic noise. And I am opposed to increasing the weight of cases for the city’s legal department in the hopes that one or two violators curb their noisy behavior. But we shall see where this discussion goes at this meeting.
- Discussion on a new (yet another!) resolution aimed at removing Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) in the city. This one would allow only for a limited scope of usage of ALPRs in the city: for parking enforcement, for control of access to a defined area where ALPRs are used only within that defined area, and for ALPRs in entrance and exit points for truck weigh stations. While I see where this resolution’s author is coming from and recognize the concerns of those who are opposed to ALPRs completely, I am also aware that the city government is still working though a previously submitted but not yet resolved resolution calling for “guardrails” around ALPR use rather than the complete restriction of them altogether. The city has terminated its contract with Flock (the brand of ALPRs that was previously in use in the city) and has either covered those cameras or the cameras have already been removed by Flock. So, in my view, there is no pressing current concern about ALPR usage in the city. No new ALPR systems have yet been proposed by the city and the previous resolution regarding “guardrails” is still under discussion. So… there is no reason as yet to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater with this new resolution. I’m not completely opposed to this new resolution; but I prefer to resolve the previous resolution before dealing with this new one. What are your thoughts in this regard?
- Potential approval of a number of temporary liquor licenses and one salvage dealer license renewal.
Human Resources and Information Technology Committee – 6:30pm The discussion on alderman salaries for future common council members is back on this committee’s agenda. This action item was held (not discussed) when it last came in front of this committee. However, there is an annual deadline for any proposed changes to alderman salaries as they are a city budget item and changes are required to be made by current aldermen only for aldermen to be elected in future elections (as aldermen are prohibited from voting to change their own salaries). So my guess is that there will be some action taken on this item this week. My suggestion will be to hold the salary rate as it stands. There is no serious justification for any increase and there is little budget room to do so (without punishing taxpayers). Some, of course, believe that there should be a substantial increase to alderman pay to encourage more candidates to run for these positions. But I do not believe that pay should ever be a reason for a person to consider candidacy to serve as a public servant. The current salary — while not in any way exorbitant or meant to be a “living wage” — is, in my opinion, a fair dollar figure which does not adversely affect taxpayers. Unless it is nominal, I will not vote for any alderman salary increase. Where do you stand on this?
Are you moved to contact your alderman with your feedback on any of the above items? If so, please do reach out! I would be glad to hear from you on these or any other city government-related concerns.
Meanwhile… Go Pack Go and Go Brew Crew!! I hope that we see some great results in the Brewers quest for a the National League Championship and a World Series berth and win. It will be well deserved by these players and will give our sweet little Midwest state some bragging rights and pride.
Have a wonderful week this week and I’ll “see” you back here next week for more from your alderman on the hot topics from your city’s government.
