Hello, Neighbors! There’s not much to share with you this week as there is not one City of Appleton government meeting scheduled for this week.
It’s Fifth Week which, as you know if you’re a regular follower of this blog, is the fifth week in a month in during which there are no scheduled meetings. First and third weeks are Full Council Meeting Weeks and second and fourth weeks are Committee Meeting Weeks. So… this week, we all, in theory, get the week off. But as you might guess, there is never a dull moment and never a week without some activity going on outside of council chambers walls.
Please read last week’s alderman blog post (if you haven’t already) and let me know if you have any questions or feedback regarding all of those items which will show up again next week for debate by the full council.
For those of you who have already contacted me regarding the “support” resolution for printing the amount of local tax dollars attributable to the state’s voucher education program, know that I agree that this information should be distributed to local taxpayers… but also that this resolution is not at all needed to make that happen. Apparently, the process is already in the works by the city staff and the mayor’s office. The no-action resolution will not change the fact that this is already in the works or do anything to actually make this happen. You can read more about why I feel that this partisan “statement piece” resolution is not necessary in last week’s alderman blog post.
Also note that I, as a member of the city’s Finance Committee, voted to approve a short-term loan agreement between the City to the school district to support the district in their cash flow issues related to the timing of payments from the state and their need to continue to pay bills while awaiting those funding payments. I find it disappointing as a taxpayer myself, though, that the district was just provided more revenue through a local referendum yet still is experiencing cash flow issues. Yes, there are some very deep public education funding issues in the State of Wisconsin. But state funding mechanisms are not the sole cause of local school districts’ inabilities to fund their activities and budget appropriately. There should be some very hard questions asked of the Appleton Area School District and their governing board right now. We need proof that they are doing everything possible to manage the things that they can indeed manage budgetarily, not just complaining about state funding and passing the buck.
If you see anything else in last week’s blog post of concern to you, please let me know. I’ll write more next week on those topics as they will move to full council discussion then.
In the meantime… I wish you an excellent week. Let’s hope we get a lot more sunny days yet this autumn before things take a turn for the winter… I mean worse. 😉
