Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I now call to order the Wednesday, 03/04/2026 meeting of the Appleton Common Council. We do not have an invocation tonight, so please rise for a moment of silence. Thank you. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty.

Roll call of Alders.

All are represented.

And roll call of officers and department heads. All are represented. All right. Thank you. Any motion on the minutes of the previous meeting? We have a motion and a second to approve the minutes of the previous meeting. Any discussion of the minutes? Hearing none, please cast your votes. Motion passes 15 to zero. The minutes have been approved. On the business presented by the mayor, I have one reappointment for you. This is 20Six-two26 for the Appleton Housing Authority. Excuse me. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion?

Hearing none, please cast your votes. Motion passes fifteen-zero. That reappointment has been approved. And thank you for approving this reappointment. And we also thank Sergeant Crispies for continuing in his service with the housing authority.

That's it for business presented by the mayors. We come now to time of public participation. At each meeting of the Common Council, the council sets aside thirty minutes for public participation. Public participation is limited to a maximum of five minutes per person. And we ask that you keep your comments concise and within the time limit. I will help you keep track of the time if you need it. And we will take up the list. If you miss this sign up, don't worry. I'll double check before we close public participation. But we'll first take up those who've signed up ahead of time.

The first is Katie Olson. If you'd please state your name and address or your affiliation for the record.

Thank you. Yes. I am Katie Olson. I live at 1720 West Reeve Street here in Appleton, and I am also the director of the nonprofit Esther. So good evening, and thank you for your time tonight.

As I said, I work for Esther, which is a nonprofit that brings together faith communities and neighbors to work for the common good. First, I want to thank the Safety and Licensing Committee for hearing our appeal last week and for provisionally approving the permit request for the No Kings march on March 28. We appreciate the committee's thoughtful consideration and the opportunity to come before common council tonight. Since that meeting, our organizer team continued to work through our plans and the logistics of

the

event. Through those conversations, we realized that the original route, which ended in the courthouse parking lot, would require a large number of participants to gather in an open parking area. So after further reflection, we felt that this could create unnecessary safety concerns and congestion. So because of that, we worked with Sergeant Bees and Mayor Woodford to develop a revised route that would instead loop around College Avenue. This route allows the march to remain moving rather than concentrating people in one congregated area, and it improves the visibility for the event while keeping participants in a more structured and predictable path.

The revised route was developed collaboratively by two organizers who are representing the full organizing team of 26 people in conversation with city leadership. We also reached out to warning lights to obtain a quote for the barricades and signage, and our organizing team has committed to fundraise to cover those costs if we do get the permit. And earlier today, I reached out to Pete Neubauer in the Department of Public Works and left a voicemail for him to ensure that we are coordinating with all of the correct city staff. Safety has always been our top priority. Our team has successfully organized two similar events in the past, and in both cases, we used trained volunteer marshals, clear communication with the participants, and internal coordination among organizers to ensure the crowd remained peaceful and safe.

Both of those events concluded safely. We will implement these same safety measures again for this event. Our goal is to work cooperatively with the city to ensure the march happens in a structured, predictable, and safe way for the participants, residents, and drivers. The permit allows us to do exactly that. So we respectfully ask the council to approve the permit with updated route so we can continue planning a safe and well organized event for our community. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you.

Next is Rhonda Swift.

I've been up here way too many times. I live at 230 West Seymour Street. First of all, thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak. I want to thank the people that voted to get the permit moved to the council for tonight, for the march. I organized my first march in a blizzard during Desert Storm. That eventually became the Fox Valley Peace Coalition. We've been at Houdini the first Saturday from eleven to twelve for almost twenty five years. It's our freedom of speech. Back then, it was awfully nasty. We had the protection of Appleton Police Department.

They were super. I appreciate it. With the various crises our country is in, and it keeps getting worse, I hope that APD continues to be supportive of our freedom of speech. They have always been there for us. I'm aware that we have a new generation, so please be patient with the new people coming into the movement for no kings, for the war, etcetera. Understand that. I do support the College Avenue for the march. And PS, I do appreciate the hearing loop. Thank you.

Next is Taylor Wilson.

My name is Taylor Wilson. I live at 1409 North Graceland Avenue in Appleton. I'm also here to speak in support of the permit for the march on March 28. I'm here as a mom. I'm here as a member of the Democratic Party of Outagamie County.

This permit would help to keep all of our community members safe, those who are protesting, those who are parents, those who visit downtown. That's something that my family does every single weekend. And for our neighbors who care deeply about our community and would like to come out and express their freedom of speech, this just keeps everybody safe. It will emphasize fairness and community values if you were to vote yes on the permit. And it will show Appleton's commitment to civic engagement and public safety. Thank you for your consideration.

All right. That's it for folks who signed up ahead. Is there anybody else who'd like to speak on an item that appears on the agenda? In the back. Come on up.

If you please state your name and address for the record and the item you'd like to speak on.

My name is Megan Normansell, 229 North Rankin. And I wanted to speak on the permit as well. I'm with Katie, and I'm a part of the safety team. And I just wanted to say that we have been working very hard to ensure that everything is orderly. We have ongoing training for members of our safety team and we, you know, with the permit, obviously, are going to make sure that everything is done as well as possible, everything is organized, safe, and, you know, as best as we possibly can. And we a history of having events that are well organized, safe, orderly, and maintaining respect for the neighboring businesses. You.

Is there anyone else who'd like to speak on an item that appears on the agenda? All right. Hearing none, we will close public participation. We'll move on now to public hearings. We have two public hearings this evening, the first of which is twenty six-one hundred seventy six.

This is a public hearing on Special Resolution 1P26, sanitary laterals, storm laterals, and storm main. This is related to Badger Ave, 8th Street, 6th Street, Dewey Street, Walden Ave, Brewster Street, Drew Street, Oklahoma Street, Brankin Street, and Law Street. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who wishes to speak? Come on forward.

And your name and address for the record, please.

Sarah Lee, 1027 West Oklahoma Street. I don't have a prepared statement. It is tax season. I'm working ninety hours instead of eighty to pay for this coming up. I just wanted to appear tonight just to recap some of the things that we talked about last summer.

And I hope that we've learned from some of the things that happened last summer and that the construction and the communication especially goes well this spring and summer. I haven't monitored any of the other streets. We have had a number of sales as expected, including another one that went up yesterday on our block. Just concerned larger concerns of folks who have actually moved out of the city of Appleton due to some of the happenings from last year. So asking for communication to go smoothly for the next two years, really, while we go through this.

And also a plea that others don't get put in our position. We were initially scheduled, I think, back in 'seventeen, 'eighteen. I haven't verified that. But it's been kind of a long thing coming. And so I do, on the other hand, hope that as other streets come up, that they don't have this kind of perpetual delay that comes forward and that the taxpayers know what to expect from a financial impact.

So I just wanted to toss those out. I have followed up with my elder person a number of times since October and haven't been able to have a meeting. I will follow-up with you, Alder Fenton, as this continues forward. But I wanted to thank you for listening to us last year. But again, just know that we are still watching and listening and hoping everything goes smoothly. Thank you.

Thank you. This is a public hearing on Special Resolution 1P26. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak? This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who wishes to speak? Is a public hearing. Is there anyone who wish to speak? Hearing none, I declare this public hearing closed. We'll move on to our next public hearing. This is item 20 six-one 173.

This is a public hearing on Special Resolution 2P26, concrete paving, sidewalk construction, and driveway aprons related to Bald Eagle Drive, Harrier Lane, Honeygold Court, Kestrel Circle, and French Road. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who wishes to speak? This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who wishes to speak? This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who wishes to speak? Hearing none, I declare this public hearing closed. Our next public hearing is item 20 six-two 77. This is a public hearing for the portion of Canal Street vacation.

This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who wishes to speak? This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who wishes to speak? This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who wishes to speak? Hearing none, I declare this public hearing closed. We'll move on now to our special resolutions. First is 26 dash zero one eight zero, final resolution one p 26, sanitary laterals, storm laterals, and storm main. We have a motion and a second to approve.

Is there any discussion? Hearing none, please cast your votes. That motion passes 15 to zero. The item has been approved. The next special resolution is item 20 six-one 181, final resolution 2P26, concrete paving, sidewalk construction, and driveway aprons. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? Hearing none, please cast your votes. That motion passes 15 to zero. That item has been approved.

Next special resolution is item 20 six-two 68, final resolution for the portion of Canal Street vacation. We have a motion and a second to approve. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, please cast your votes. That motion passes 15 to zero.

The item has been approved. All right. Before we jump into this, since we have some possibly new folks with us this evening who've not been with us for a common council meeting, the next portion of the agenda is titled Establish the Order of the Day. So what happens now is that the council uses what's called a Consent Agenda. And what that means is all of the committee reports that have been generated since the last council meeting appear on the agenda and at this time council members will ask to request separate votes on items they'd like to have a separate discussion on.

So that'll be the process now And then anything that's not separated out will be taken up with the balance of the agenda. So with that, we will open the floor. And Alder Krot.

Thank you, mayor. From Safety and Licensing, 2059, I'd like to refer that back to committee to, if I could explain the reason why. First of all, I just want to thank those involved with this for their work and ongoing communication. But it sounds I'm hearing that there's some final details that need to be figured out as it relates to the traffic control plan. Sounds like progress is being made. But let's send it back to committee, do the committee work there, and then bring it back to counsel in its final form. Thank you. And this does not impact the date that they have planned for their event because we have committee and counsel before that.

Okay. Thank you. No objections. We'll send that back to committee. And I wouldn't ordinarily comment on a refer back, but I think just to give some additional context, as was stated during public participation, we have had conversations with the organizers, very productive discussions with organizers.

And there are a number of details that have to be worked out, especially given the fact that what committee discussed at their at the last meeting of the Safety and Licensing Committee was not ultimately what was decided on or the direction that the organizers wanted to go. So a meeting was held on Friday to discuss an alternative route. And while we've tried to expedite that internal review process, there are obviously significant details involved with changing the route. The review process is ongoing, I would say substantially completed. However, staffing analysis hasn't been completed yet.

And we would ordinarily have a follow-up discussion with event organizers once the event plan is developed. So we'd like to have that conversation. We're moving as quickly as possible. But given the short turnaround time, we did not have that information totally compiled for you and we had not completed that follow-up discussion with organizers just yet. So continuing to make progress.

And to Alder Croats' point, there's another committee meeting and a council meeting before the scheduled event. And we'll continue our work internally and in collaboration with organizers so we can bring back complete information to the committee at your next meeting, at the next meeting of Safety and Licensing. And the committee can then send it back to counsel if they're comfortable with the approach. So that's where this stands. I just want to give additional context, which I ordinarily wouldn't do in this case. But Alder Fenton, I want to be careful. We're not going to discuss the item.

Order. Because there are people here interested, would you just note the date and time of It that next committee

is what is the A week from tonight at 05:30PM.

Okay. Eleventh at 05:30. Okay. So Safety and Licensing Committee will meet next the eleventh at 05:30. And that'll be taken up then. All right. Next, Alder Jones.

From the Community Development Committee, item number 260,209, request to approve preliminary twenty twenty six-twenty twenty seven program year community development block grants, community partner allocations as specified in the attached

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that do that.

Okay. Any others? All right. Hearing none, We have two items to deal with, and I will take them up in the order they were separated. So we're gonna go to the item from community development committee.

I can find it. Okay. This is item 20 six-two zero nine request to approve the preliminary twenty twenty six-twenty twenty seven program year community development block grant partner allocations. This we have a motion and a second to approve. Alder Van Zeeland.

Thank you, chair. I just I hope everyone got to see the video and the discussion that took place regarding these items. I know that the committee did a lot of work to get to this final recommendation and I just wanted to thank everyone who participated. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Alright, we have a motion and a second to approve. Please cast your votes. Alright, the motion passes 14 to zero. Alder Jones, we will note your abstention.

The item passes. Alright, over to Safety and Licensing Committee. This is item 20 six-two 27, recommendation to create city ordinance authorizing impoundment of vehicles used in reckless driving offenses. We have a motion and a second to approve. Open the floor for discussion. Alder Van Zeeland.

Thank you, Chair. Because this is talking about seizing property from people, some of the discussion that we had at committee was about the definition of reckless driving and how often that occurs. I was hoping that we could, for the people at home who are watching this and for the people who will report on this, talk a little bit more about that to make sure that we're really capturing. Attorney Berwyn said that this is something that requires a number of things to happen in order to ticket someone for reckless driving. But there really wasn't ton of information.

And I did ask that we would have more information about that for this meeting.

Okay. I will ask Chief Olson to provide a little bit more information about I think the question is really about criteria, what would cause this to be put to use. So Chief Olson, which microphone do you have there? Okay. Chief Olson.

So first I want to apologize because I don't recollect having that discussion during our meeting. So I'm not as prepared as I would have liked to have been to answer that tonight. But that being said, pieces that do need to be met for reckless driving do include criminal negligence. So looking at it from the perspective of the driving has to create an unreasonable risk of death or great bodily harm, which is something that obviously isn't a criteria that's reached very often. As I did mention during the Safety and Licensing Committee meeting last month in January, we issued I should say two months ago now in January we issued two citations that fell under that criteria for potentially being reckless driving.

The other element is that the driver needs to be or should have been aware of the risk that their driving was creating to either other drivers, other vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, things along the lines of, you know, people, property, but a significant risk, not just speeding alone or deviating from a lane by itself, but a culmination of factors.

Thank you very much. That was what I was looking for.

All right. Alder Schultz.

Thank you, Chair. I guess I direct a question to Chief Olson as well. I'm just trying to understand a little bit more about the origination of this new ordinance. First question would be, what was this are there other municipalities that this was modeled after? And are they successful in adjudicating like tickets that are given for?

And then seizure of vehicles used in and returned. So some insight on a model that we're following if we are. And then secondly, guess I assume this is related to anybody who is operating, I guess, any vehicle, motorcycle, automobile. I'm not quite clear whether it pertains to someone who might be on an electric bicycle or some of these other vehicles that seem to be contributing to some of what we're describing here, which is the reckless driving, speeding, racing, and creating hazardous conditions on our roadways, which to me feels a little bit more like it's being induced more by non automobiles than automobiles. But I'd just like your insight a little bit on what this might affect and if this is going to be helpful in addressing some of those other concerns I raised.

Chief Olson.

Thank you for the question. So the first part of your question around how did this originate, there was a legislative change that happened in late December that essentially provided the additional authority if adopted in in ordinance to do the additional towing under those very narrow circumstances. So because it is so new, I can't speak to the impact it could have on reckless driving. However, I think any additional tool that law enforcement can have that could address some of the reckless driving behaviors that we have since I think collectively across the country we've seen an escalation in aggressive driving behavior. And so this is a tool that is now being provided us to be able to exercise, again, under a pretty narrow scope.

I know Green Bay is recently working through the adoption of an ordinance. The language is a little bit different than ours. Milwaukee PD has already adopted this ordinance as well. But again, there's not a whole lot of data out there to be able to show what kind of an impact it's having. I don't recall what the second part was. Apologize.

This was related to vehicle types. Does this apply broadly to other types of vehicles?

Yes. So it only applies to those things that are actually defined statutorily as a vehicle. So bicycles, electric bikes don't qualify as a vehicle. There are other mechanisms for addressing those electric. I don't want to call them vehicles because they're not, but electric bikes. We can seize those under a different authority, but seized as, for evidence purposes, I should say. So that's different than towing and impounding a vehicle as an immediate consequence for driving behavior.

Alder Schultz. Thank you for that clarification. That helps. Appreciate it.

Alder Smith. Thank you,

your honor. First, I'd just like to say thank you to APD and Chief Olson for bringing this forward. I think this is done very quickly after the change in Madison that allowed for this. And I think anything that can help us crack down on aggressive driving is valuable. I have three questions related to it just so I can be clear in my own mind in talking to people.

The first would be, as part of the Lawrence community, we always have a lot of concern about people on College Avenue and those walkways and sometimes when there's a lot of students on there. Would reckless driving, would that cover people, students walking through a crosswalk and someone powers through there? It seems to me like that would be an example of reckless driving when students are endangered or something like that. My second question is about the mention you make in the memo to fleeing cars. And my assumption is that that would be if they flee in a reckless manner as opposed to just fleeing, not pulling over, something like that.

But there would be something about their driving. I just want to be clear about what that means. And then the third is the process of impoundment. How soon do people get their car back and they go that night and if they're willing to pay everything? Or is there a time gap between when the impoundment happens and when they get it back? Those are my questions.

You

for Chief first Olson. To answer the first question, I know you're not going to like to hear this, but it depends. You know, if the driving behavior through the crosswalk area, how many people are present? Again, is it just failing to obey the crosswalk, or was there more driving behaviors that would lend to more of a reckless driving behavior? So I can't answer that without I mean those would each have to be considered on a case by case basis.

It certainly could be considered under again a very narrow set of facts. But so it depends. As to number two, you might have to refresh my memory real quick. Fleeing vehicles. Correct.

Thank you. So under fleeing vehicles, yes. So failure to yield by itself isn't necessarily reckless. However, if they're speeding, again creating a dangerous situation where we can articulate that their driving behavior caused escalated risk of death or great bodily harm to drivers of other vehicles and pedestrians or things of that nature, it could qualify as reckless driving and qualify. As for the towing question, so it depends on who we go through a rotating list of the city has a list of towing companies that are contacted.

It's a rotating list. So when we call a next up wrecker, it could go to a number of different towing companies. It's not just one tow company that may tow the vehicle. So depending what hours the tow company has and the time of day that the vehicle removed, that would lend to whether or not there's gonna be additional storage fees and things of that nature. But there'd be nothing on our end, on the front end, that would necessarily prohibit somebody from getting their vehicle even the same night if the tow company is open and they can pay the applicable tow fees that they're assessed.

Thank you.

Alder Hayden. Thank you, Chair.

I just have one clarification that I would like from Chief Olson. One of the notes I took was you mentioned that the driver's aware of the risk. And one thing that kind of popped into my head was, what does the driver's mental state have to do with that definition? If someone is inebriated or something else, does that come into play with defining this as reckless driving?

Chief Folsom?

So the thing that immediately comes to mind, think, an example is, let's just say somebody's having a medical episode. And that would lead to a crash or lead to erratic driving behavior. Say somebody's suffering from low blood sugar we see occasionally. That's where you talk about the difference between the driver being aware of the risk that their driving is causing versus somebody perhaps not being aware.

Does that

answer your question? Sorry.

It does. Thank you. Okay.

Any further discussion? Hearing none, have a motion and a second to approve. Please cast your votes. That motion passes 15 to zero. The item has been approved.

That's it for separate votes. Need a motion on the balance of the agenda. We have a motion and a second to approve the balance. Any discussion? Hearing none, cast your votes.

Alright. That motion passes 15 to zero. The balance of the agenda has been approved. We have no consolidated action items. No items held. Need a motion on the ordinances. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion on the ordinances? Hearing none, please cast your votes. Alright. That motion passes 15 to zero. Ordinances have been approved. License applications and communications referred to committees of jurisdiction. Resolution submitted by all the persons referred to committees of jurisdiction. Have there been any resolutions submitted?

There have not.

Right. Is there any other business? Hearing none, need a motion to adjourn. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. We are adjourned. Thank you.