Appleton City Council Update: September 13, 2026

This week looks to be a relatively easy one (though I hate to say that and have me proven wrong with a prolonged full council meeting on Wednesday).  Here’s what’s on the docket:

Library Board – Appleton Public Library Cornerstone Conference Room – 5pmLast week’s meeting that I detailed here was actually a meeting of only the finance (sub)committee of the board.  The results of that meeting will be on this week’s full board agenda for approval after the subcommittee made an amendment to the proposed budget to increase the Part Time Wages line by $15,000 for 2027.  I’m curious to know where the other end of that adjustment is supposed to come from (where there will be additional dollars to spend in support of this adjustment).  But that’s sure to be mentioned in this week’s meeting.  Other items on the full board agenda include approval of the makeup of the newly proposed subcommittees of the board, approval of recent library bill registers and a small budget amendment, and review of several administrative reports.  They will also hear an update on the library’s “strategic planning” efforts and expenses.

City of Appleton Common Council – 7pmThe mayor will get the ball rolling again this full council meeting with a new slew of proclamations.  Since there’s been a proclamations drought lately, we had to expect that there would be quite a few coming again soon.  There will be a presentation of the Constitution Week proclamation at this meeting as well.  Then we’ll move forward with all of the business that was voted on in committee meetings last week.

• From the Safety and Licensing Committee:  During last week’s meeting of this committee, the applicant for a bartender’s license with a battery conviction on his record addressed the committee and asked why this renewal of his bartender’s license was denied automatically when the battery conviction was previous to a current bartender’s license from the city that he’s been working under all this time.  That came as a surprise to us all as a license should never have been granted.  This seems to have been a previous clerical error on the part of the city.  But it sure makes for a messy situation for this renewal.  The committee cannot legally grant this license per state statutes; but the applicant has been using a granted license up to this point.  Yikes.
• Also from the Safety and Licensing Committee:  After this full council meeting, we can all expect a change to the policy for Fire Pit Permits in the city.  The current policy of these permits all  expiring on December 31 without any proration of the annual fee will end and all new fire pit permits issued will be valid for 365 days from the date of issue.  This, I believe, is a positive move as more folks will likely get these permits knowing that they won’t lose money if they wait to get a permit until later in a calendar year.
  
  
• From the Community Development Committee:  As was mentioned in last week’s post, a buyer of a city-owned Southpoint Commerce Park lot has agreed in a counter-offer from the City not to use this property for a data center.  Since the buyer has already agreed to these term, I have no issue with approving the offer and counter offer for the city to sell this lot.  But I still take issue with the city proactively pushing for buyers to agree to these terms without the city having predetermined definitions of “large” data centers, etc. (which is currently in the works with a relatively new resolution that has not yet been discussed at committee level).  This feels a lot like restrictions on private property rights that are not currently called out in municipal code or by other written and approved rules/policies.  What are your thoughts on this?  (Note: There is a closed session notice for this item as it may require sensitive real estate negotiation discussions.  But the likelihood of that is low.)

So as was mentioned above, this seems to be a bit of a light week as far as city business.  But if there is anything above that is of concern to you or if anything else city-government-related comes up, please reach out to me and let me know.  I’m always interested in your feedback!

I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead.  Please join me here again next week for another installment of the alderman blog.  Thank you!