Committee notes for the week of May 10th

There are a full slate of meetings for the committees this week, but none of the items on the agendas will draw much attention. I'll run through those below, but I quickly wanted to share one final update on the two big resolutions from our council meeting last week.

AAPI resolution passes

The much discussed AAPI resolution passed the council by a unanimous 15-0 vote last Wednesday. it came back to the council with no changes from it's originally proposed. Though a few amendments to the resolution were offered at the safety and licensing committee, none were approved. It was good to see strong support for the AAPI community in Appleton. 

CEDAW resolution passes

A resolution on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) passed the council 11-4 Wednesday night. I voted against this resolution. The resolution before us had some elements I felt are worthy of support. But as is often the case in politics these days, references to the United Nations CEDAW resolution and elements contained in it, were not things I and others in my district support. 

As a husband and father of four girls, I am concerned about and committed to ensuring they are on an equal playing field with men. But as I've written about before and talked about at council Wednesday, this CEDAW resolution is beyond the scope of what local government does. In fact, I mentioned at least two actionable ways I think we can have a bigger impact here in Appleton, rather than just passing a resolution. Words without actions are just words. 

CEA Committee

My first meeting as a member of the Central Equipment Agency (CEA) Committee is Monday at 4 p.m. As I mentioned in my first blog post about committees, the CEA is a group of staff that oversee the fleet of city vehicles and related equipment. City departments are required to fund the CEA to purchase vehicles and equipment on the department's behalf. The CEA maintains the fleets and holds funds for future replacement. 

The lone action item is a request by the fire department to remove an older light duty vehicle from the CEA fleet and to allow the fire department to purchase it directly. Usually when a vehicle is due for replacement, the CEA sells it and the proceeds go toward the purchase of a replacement vehicle, with the rest of the cost covered by the department requesting it. 

In this case the fire department wants to use the money saved for it's replacement, to purchase two new vehicles at a lower cost and upgrade a planned truck purchase. Replacing the light duty truck would cost $180,000. Purchasing two smaller trucks and upgrading a third would cost $117,100. 

I have some questions about the process and future impacts of the new vehicles, but the fire department has made the case it will help with operational efficiencies. I will get a chance to have my questions answered Monday.

Municipal Services Committee

Meeting at 4:30 p.m. Monday, there are a couple of action items and informational items for us to take up. Of note is a request by the YMCA and U.S. Venture for the city to vacate S. Oak St. and S. Kimball St. A street vacation request means the City will no longer own or maintain a road and in this case, those streets could likely be removed in the future as part of a development on the bluff site. 

We'll also be asked to vote on deleting a parking attendant from the Department of Public Works' table of organization. There is a proposal to hire a call service to respond to parking ramp entrance/exit questions/issues that arise. 

Finance Committee

At 5:30 p.m. the Finance Committee will take up a slate of items, mostly related to approving contracts for projects. Those include pavement upgrades at Pierce Park and a solar project at the Municipal Services Building on Glendale Ave. 

I just wanted to quickly highlight the solar project for a couple of reasons. First, it came in under budget, which is always great to see. The $386,200 project (plus $50,000 contingency fund) is much lower than the $475,000 projected in the capital improvement plan included in this year's budget. 

But this project will also pay for itself in about 12 years and save the city over $1 million in electrical costs over the next 30 years if all goes well. 

This is one of a number of projects that are part of the city's sustainability plan, created in 2010. The overarching goal was to reduce the City's energy usage by 25% by 2025. That goal has already been met and other projects to reduce the City's carbon footprint are in the works. 

I applaud the staff for finding projects that can meet environmental sustainability goals, while also impacting the City's bottom line. Appleton is a leader in the state when it comes to projects like this. 

Parks and Recreation Committee

Monday at 6:30 p.m. will mark the first meeting of the new Parks and Recreation Committee. Aside from electing a vice-chair, the only other action item is a resolution to support the staff seeking DNR grant funds for the David and Rita Nelson River Crossing by the future Ellen Kort Peace Park (near the Paper Discovery Center) off Water St.

Utilities Committee

The Utilities Committee has just two items on the agenda Tuesday at 5 p.m. Awarding contracts for sanitary and storm sewer televising and for a lead service line replacement plan. 

The sewer televising and cleaning is routine maintenance work on our sanitary and storm sewer system. 

The lead service line replacement plan, will see the City hiring a contractor to help staff create a plan to address and replace the 100 remaining public lead service lines in the city, as well as the 5,000 remaining private service lines that are made of  an unknown material. The plan will help staff investigate the material and determine if it is lead or something else, and determine a replacement timeframe. Overall there are almost 30,000 water service lines in Appleton. 

Board of Health

The Board of Health meets Wednesday morning at 7 a.m., the first meeting for this board since the new council took office in April. Along with its organizational items, the board will honor Dr. Doug Nelson and Health Officer Kurt Eggebrecht at the meeting. 

Also on the agenda is approval of a noise variance for this year's Mile of Music Festival. The good news is that the festival is back after being cancelled last year due to the pandemic. Organizers say about 600 live music sets will take place at approximately 60 venues around the downtown this year. 

This is incredibly welcome news for our economy and for our community to have one of its signature events back for us to enjoy this year. 

City Plan Commission

Also meeting for the first time under the new council, the City Plan Commission will meet Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. Action items include a few rezoning requests and the street vacation request I mentioned in the Municipal Services Committee agenda. 

Safety & Licensing Committee

This week's Safety & Licensing Committee agenda for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. is made up of a number of license approvals for beer/liquor, salvage operations and pet stores.  

HR/IT Committee    

The Human Resources and Information Technology Committee meeting Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. will take up a few items already discussed on the Municipal Services agenda related to the Department of Public Works. 

Also of note is the recruitment of a new Human Resources Director and Information Technology Director. Both positions are currently vacant and the Health Department Director position will be open in June as well. 

The HR department is currently being led by Deputy HR Director Jay Ratchman, serving as the Interim Director. The IT department is currently being led by Finance Director Tony Saucerman, with the IT departments Network Administrator Brad Schumann being elevated to Interim Deputy Director. 

As always, agendas can be found on the agenda and meetings page of the city website. Meetings can be viewed live on the website and meetings are also open for anyone to attend in person. I am always available to answer questions at district15@appleton.org or (920) 419-1360.