Committee notes for the week of 4/25/22

It's the first week of committee meetings for the new council and while all committees but the Plan Commission meet this week, most meetings agendas consist of picking vice chairs for the committees and informational business. 

I'll make note of the few important items on the agendas this week, a little further down. But I wanted to start by highlighting a resolution I introduced last week. 

Water Main Resolution

As the resolution reads and as I've written about several times over the last few weeks, the city is falling farther and farther behind on basic infrastructure. This is one of the critical services that only the city can provide. Over the last 20 years or so the combination of lower state financial aid and shifting priorities has meant more borrowing for road and infrastructure projects and fewer of them. 

Over the last few days a number of residents have reached out to me in support of this resolution. Most all of them have been in agreement that it is time the city refocus its priorities on the basic services local government is supposed to offer and do it in a more fiscally responsible way. 

This resolution will redirect $6 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars that have flowed to the city over the last two years. In total the city received $15 million, some of which was spent in 2021. There is about $8 million in ARPA money left. The $2 million left in reserve will help reimburse the city at year's end for COVID related expenses this year and other operating deficits the city may experience in certain areas. 

The resolution was referred to the Public Works Department for further study. I did discuss this resolution with public works staff and the mayor prior to introduction, so hopefully the delay for planning is short and this will be before committee soon. 

This resolution in itself will not be enough to replace the 39 miles of smaller than standard water mains left in service. But it will do some of them and it will do it without further borrowing which I hope my colleagues will support. I think this resolution will be a good gauge of the priorities of our individual council members. 

Committee Highlights

• The Municipal Services Committee will take up another resolution introduced last week. The  request is to put a plan to revitalize Soliders Square in the five-year capital improvement plan (CIP). However it does not specify a funding source or amount, so without that, in my opinion this resolution is not ready for introduction. To the best of my knowledge, projects are never put in the CIP without this critical information.
• The Finance Committee will recommend approval of accepting a $550,000 grant to help replace private lead service lines for homeowners in the city. 
• The HR/IT Committee will take up a couple of personnel changes and hear an update from the IT Director on an audit of the city's network infrastructure. 

Get In Touch

I am always available to answer questions at district15@appleton.org or (920) 419-1360. As always, agendas can be found on the agenda and meetings page of the city website. Meetings can be viewed live on the website or watched at a later date. Meetings are also open for anyone to attend in person and all meetings take place in the Common Council chambers on the 6th floor of City Hall, unless otherwise noted.