Well, Neighbors… Thanks for tuning in for another weekly alderman blog post… after a disappointing Packer game result yesterday. They gave it a good run! But it’s on to next season now.
But enough about football. Let’s get to the week’s events in local government in this Committee Meetings Week. Below is a summary of what you can expect. As always, I would love to hear from you with any questions, comments, or concerns you might have on any of the items mentioned below or any other city government goings-on.
Monday, 01/22/2024
Municipal Services Committee – 4:30pm These committee members have quite a few items to review and potentially approve this week:
- A request from Boldt Company for the continued temporary use (through early July 2024) of some of the metered parking street area behind the Fox Commons area (the old City Center) for parking of their construction vehicles/supply trucks.
- A request for street occupancy for ice sculptures in the downtown area amenity strips for the Avenue of Ice celebration 02/23/2024 through 02/25/2024.
- A sole-sourcing request for the city’s traffic division for items such as street lighting/decorative street lighting and traffic signal control equipment. While I am always concerned when there is no competitive bidding for the procurement of this sort of equipment needed by the city, this request is likely to be easily approved simply due to the fact that there are very few competitive suppliers for these particular items.
- Another sole-sourcing request for the city to use one service for parking ramp security — Star Protection and Patrol. In 2024, the city is proposing to use the full budgeted amount of $57,000 for security in and patrols of the city’s three parking ramps. Here again is another reason to review with third-party consultants how this city operates the parking utility (ramps, in particular)!
Finance Committee – 5:30pm This committee begins this week’s meeting with a debate on a new resolution submitted last week for allocating some energy efficiency grant funds to the city’s library project. When these grant funds were received by the city months ago, I tried to amend the receipt of these grant funds to be allocated directly to the library project to reduce the overall taxpayer burden portion of library project budget. My amendment was specifically rejected by all three authors of this new resolution. What has changed since I proposed this use of grant funds to reduce the overall taxpayer portion of the library project budget…?
Well, the city, as you know, is now in a bit of a pickle with having to move the temporary library twice (once to the first Best Buy location and now most recently to the ReStore location). And then let’s not forget that the library will again need to be moved back to the remodeled downtown location once the building project is complete. The library project budget that the city approved (with a no vote from your alderman due to the lack of assured funds from the Friends of the Library fundraising campaign and no real exit strategy if those fundraising efforts fall short) does not include funds for that additional move. So… as a band aid, this resolution is being floated.
I expect to vote ‘no’ on this resolution as a ‘yes’ vote would be a breaking of the mayor’s promise to the citizens of Appleton on the maximum city budget that would be spent on the library project. He promised $26.4M would be the maximum bill taxpayers would have to foot for the library project. Shortly after making that promise, this council voted to apply an additional $2M of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to the project for “broadband access” (another ‘no’ vote from your alderman since I do not taking breaking promises to taxpayers lightly). And somehow, that additional $2M was not considered the breaking of a promise. And now this… another $134,180 in funds is proposed to be added to this project… again without a reduction in the amount that taxpayers are footing the bill for on the library project.
It is a classic bait-and-switch which I expect many on the council will talk themselves into. “Well, it’s grant funds… so it’s ‘free money’ that will help us get out of the extra move expense jam that we’re in.” That is just unacceptable to me as these grant funds could be applied to another city initiative (or to the energy efficiency initiatives already taking place in the library project)… but would actually reduce the amount of taxpayer money required in the city’s budget. Instead, this resolution (and the council members who will vote for it) would use those funds on top of the amount already budgeted for the library project but not reduce the taxpayers’ burden. It’s a lie that people will tell themselves… but I will not vote to purposefully lie to you, Neighbors.
There are also a couple of other non-library-related contract changes and approvals to be discussed. Both deal with costs coming in over budget and the shifting of funds from one project to another to cover the differences. This is a disconcerting trend which will likely lead to many other dominoes falling in the future. It seems quite early in the 2024 budget year to be making a lot of these budget swaps. But in most cases, city staff are making the best recommendations that they can to stay on budget overall and use 2023 carryover funds as best as possible. This is a trend to keep our eyes on, though, folks….
There is also an ARPA Funds status review on the agenda regarding the $8M that the city received from the federal government which must be committed before the end of 2024 to be spent by the end of 2026. Here is the memo if you are interested in reviewing it. Let me know if you have any questions or comments about the already committed funds and those still in the development/planning phase of being spent.
Parks and Recreation Committee – 6:15pm These committee members will, for the third time, be reviewing the proposed revisions to the Houdini Plaza and Jones Park rental/fee schedules and policies. The last time they met, committee members asked city staff to provide them with data on what for-profit and non-profit groups rented these facilities in the last year(s). I expect that we will hear a recap from staff members at this meeting.
Local and national non-profit organizations already receive a discount for rental of these locations and, while the proposed increase for Houdini Plaza is an obvious increase from what the current rental fees are, the proposed increased rates are not substantially cost-prohibitive. For example, the fee for Houdini Plaza for local non-profits would go from $25/day to $50/day. And there are no requested increases for fees for Jones Park in 2024. I do not see why these suggested changes have not been promptly approved but hope that they will be this week.
This committee will also vote on approval of a design contract for Phase II of Lundgaard Park. The proposal is to use the same design firm as was used for Phase I at a fee of $71,500 (Phase II design only). The memo for this request states that Phase I construction will be completed in Spring 2024 and that there is donation funding available for design and construction of a pavilion (which would be Phase II). I find a design fee of $71,500 for a pavilion to be a bit pricey… but will ask more about that fee and what it all entails and share that with you when I know more.
Tuesday, 01/23/2024
Fox Cities Transit Commission – 2:50pm Commissioners will be asked to review and approve the November and December 2023 payments for Valley Transit and an access control contract (doors/gate access, key cards, etc) for the Whitman Avenue construction project. The latter is to be paid for with grant funding in the Valley Transit budget.
Utilities Committee – 4:30pm Three contracts for work on the 1990’s-era upgrades to the clarifiers at the Appleton Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWWTP) are up for review and potential approval by this committee.
Wednesday, 01/24/2024
City Plan Commission – 3:30pm This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items.
Human Resources and Information Technology Committee – 4:30pm This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items.
Safety and Licensing Committee – 5:30pm This meeting has been cancelled due to lack of agenda items.
Community and Economic Development Committee – 6:30pm When the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Advisory Board met last week, they revised some of the staff’s recommendations for CDBG funding in 2024. (The staff recommendations were briefly discussed and linked here and the board-recommended changes are detailed here.) The reallocating of some funds from Habitat for Humanity and WWBIC to allow for some funding for the Salvation Army seems fair and logical. We shall see if these committee members agree with the advisory board members and approve the board’s changes.
With this last meeting, we will close out this Committee Meetings Week. And we will have to hold tight on any further action or discussions until after the last week of January (next week, Fifth Week). I would love to hear from you if you have any thoughts, opinions, or feedback for me regarding any of the items mentioned above or previously in alderman blog posts.
Have a wonderful week ahead. I look forward to another week of continuing to do my best to serve our neighborhoods and the best interests of all of us in the City of Appleton. And I don’t know about you but I can’t wait to feel this warm up that the weathermen are predicting for later this week. Let’s plan on meeting here again next week for another alderman blog post update. Thanks for reading today!
