Common Council - Regular Meeting

All right, folks. Thank you for waiting. We'll call to order the meeting of the Common Council for Wednesday, March 18. Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alderson Fenton.

Thank you. I had something written, but I pivoted. And I want to take my time tonight to publicly thank everyone who has been, and in many cases still are there's a lot of snow to move working tirelessly to get our city moving again after Blizzard Elsa. And by the way, it might be a while before I agree to watch a certain Disney franchise with my granddaughters again. We think of the operators driving the plows, but there's a whole team of mechanics, supervisors, and support staff, some of whom I know pitch in again as operators during emergencies like this.

They've worked long hours even during the height of the storm. While the community is being told to stay home because the roads aren't safe, these dedicated folks are out there trying to make those roads passable so that police and fire can get to emergencies and so that essential workers can get to their jobs. Kudos to the police and fire departments for their service in these times as well. I wanna make a special shout out to the staff handling the phones at the Department of Public Works. Not every caller is at their best in kindness and at kindest in these situations.

And to everybody sharing updates with the council members and the community, I heard from several constituents that they were grateful for the information I was able to pass along. I'm gonna close with some snowplow inspired haiku I wrote this morning instead of cleaning up all the mess we've tracked into our kitchen. For the plow operators, at work all night long, blade pushing mountains of white, let this be the last. For the rest of us, winter wonderland, agreed it's very pretty, now just plow us out. And for the complete street engineers, Model says there's room around the calming feature. Please let it be right.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Alright, roll call of alder persons.

Oh, yep.

There you go.

All are represented with the exception of alderpersons Smith and Jones who are excused. Alderperson Herzheim will be joining us when she is able. And alderperson Croat is virtual with us tonight. Thank you. Roll call of officers and department heads. All are represented with the exception of library director who is excused.

Thank you. We will entertain an approval of our previous council meeting minutes from March 4. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? Hearing none please cast your votes.

Alder Krott, how do you vote? Votes aye. Thank you. That motion passes 11 to zero. We will start with the business presented by the mayor. I am not the mayor, as you can see. I am council president Van Zeeland. I am leading the meeting for mayor Woodford, is joining us from a secure location. Just kidding. He's going to discuss item 260,355.

Before I turn it over to Mayor Woodford, can we get a motion to get this item on the table for discussion, please? We do have a motion and a second. Mayor Woodford, I'll turn it over to you.

Right. Thank you, chair, and I appreciate you filling in this evening. I'm coming to you all from Washington, D. C. Where I've been participating in the National League of Cities Conference through the League of Wisconsin Municipalities and spent a good day advocating on behalf of the interests and needs of our community in the City Of Appleton and Wisconsin communities.

So I'm very sorry I couldn't be there in person, but I am very pleased to be bringing forward a recommendation for our next Finance Director at the City of Appleton. I'm bringing forward a recommendation for Jennifer Messerschmidt to become our next Director of Finance. She brings more than twenty years of professional finance experience spanning both Ms. Messerschmidt is a highly qualified finance professional with significant public sector leadership experience. She holds a bachelor's degree in accounting and is a licensed certified public accountant.

Through her career, she has served in several senior finance roles, including controller, deputy director, and finance director for neighboring communities, most recently Brown County. Her background includes extensive experience in financial leadership, leadership, staff supervision, municipal budgeting, enterprise resource planning system conversions, including Tyler Munis, which is the system we use, and General Municipal Finance Administration. It's my honor to bring forward this recommendation and I appreciate your consideration.

Thank you, Mayor. Any discussion on this item? Hearing none, please cast your votes. That motion passes 12 to zero. Welcome, Director Messerschmidt.

I also want to thank former director Oman for the work that she's done in the position. I think I speak for all of the council when I say that we're very glad that you're going to continue to work with us at the city. So thank you as well. All right. That brings us to public participation.

We have come now to a time for public participation. At each meeting, the Common Council sets aside thirty minutes for members of the public to express their views on items which appear on the agenda. Tonight, we have three members of the public signed up to speak. If you didn't get a chance to sign up, I will check before I close public participation. But let's get started with the first on the list, formal alderperson Tao from Longcheng Marketplace.

If you could just state your name and address for the record, please.

Good evening. My name is Mayua Tao. My address is 5310 North Rosemary Drive, Appleton, 54913. Tonight, I wanted to thank our council member, and good evening to everyone, department heads and other directors, too. I'm very happy to be here tonight and to see everyone, too.

The launching marketplace project focused on strengthening a community center economic hub that supports small businesses, cultural activities and neighborhood revitalization. Our vision is to create a vibrant marketplace where small businesses can start grow and eventually expand into larger opportunities. This project is about economic development, but it is also about creating a place where the community can gather and celebrate culture. Many small businesses owner needs an affordable place to begin. A marketplace model allow entrepreneur to test idea, build customers and grow before moving into their own storefront.

This creates a pathway for business ownership that is more accessible. This project brings together business development, culture program and community activities in one space. It will create a destination where people can support local entrepreneurial and experience culture diversity. This work is important because entrepreneurship can change families and community, supporting small businesses help create stability and opportunity. The City Council support is incredibly meaningful because it demonstrates that this project aligns with the priorities outlined in the Appleton Comprehensive Plan, which emphasizes neighbourhood, vitality, economic development and creating space that brings the community together.

By supporting this project, the city helps leverage state investment through WEDC and ensure that this initiative strengthening both local economy and community connections in Appleton. This project is about partnership with the support from the city and the state. We can create a space that's strengthening community connection, support small businesses and entrepreneurship and contribute to the long term vitality and economic landscape of Appleton. And I would like to thank you all in advance for your support and looking forward to seeing this project move and exciting for more to come for us in the community. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Jeanie Roberts, who would also like to speak on the item with Long Cheng. Welcome, Jeanie. If you could just state your name and address for the record, please.

Jeanie Roberts, J E A N N E, 1110 East Florida Avenue. And I am the vice president of the Long Cheng Community Center. Mayua is the business part of the center. And anybody who knows Mayua knows that she can take something nothing and make something great out of it. That's what she's already done with Long Chang and that's what she plans to do with the loans that she is taking out and the grant that she's applied for.

If any of you have not been to Longcheng, you need to get there. There's several food vendors that you're just going to love. There's the the other vendors that just looking at all of the cultural items that are for sale, you're going to love. And then, if you get children or grandchildren, you got to get to the events. You've got to get to the Santa Claus event that I went to with my daughter, son-in-law and two year old grandson who was not scared of the Santa at the Longcheng Marketplace.

You got to get to the Easter egg event. You got to find out about the community garden that's a part of Longcheng, where Mayua has people growing foods, growing vegetables that are typical from Laos. Where she has the elders working with young people to find, to understand cultural gardening, cultural food preparation. You have, you've got to get there to see the young people working with the elder women to find out about the cultural craft work, to find out about the traditional stories. This is all a part of the Longcheng Marketplace and Longcheng Community Center.

And this is why it's so important for this Board to support all the good work that's happening there. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, we have Katie Olson, who would like to speak on the No Kings permit. Welcome, Katie.

Thank you. Katie Olson, 1720 West Reef Street, Appleton, 54914. And hello again. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak again tonight. And yes, I am here on behalf of Esther and other organizations that applied for the permit for the march to happen on March 28 for the No Kings Day.

Just first of all, apologies that we were not able to apply on time because this would all not be happening if that had occurred. But due to this being a national rally, we couldn't change the date and as as organizers weren't able to meet beforehand. So that is why it was late, but we have been, doing our darndest to work with city staff to come up with a safe plan for making sure all of these people that come to use their First Amendment rights do so in a safe manner. And we do think keeping people stagnant in Houdini Plaza would not be safe for the number of people predicted to be there. And so we decided a march would be necessary and yes given our time frame we did change the idea of the March because we originally were gonna go to the courthouse parking lot but then thought that might be a safety concern too.

So we have this newer route that allows us to keep people in motion longer. And like I mentioned, I've been working with city staff to try to make sure this is as safe and effective as possible And that was presented to the safety and licensing committee last week. And so I just wanted to, you know, reiterate those things to the full council and department chairs and encourage you all to to approve the permit even though the application deadline was missed. Thank you very much.

Thank you that takes care of everyone who signed up to speak is there anyone else who wishes to speak on an item on the agenda this evening? Check one more time. Anyone wish to speak? All right. Hearing none, we'll close public participation. We have no public hearings or special resolutions this evening, so we will establish the order of the day. Does anyone have an item they'd like to separate out for discussion? Alder Fenton? Thank you, Chair.

From Community Development, I'd like to separate 2004, the CDIWEDC grant for Longcheng.

That was 260,304. Yes. Got it. Thank you. Next, Elder Hartzheim.

Thank you, chair. From safety and licensing item number 20Six-two59, the special events application denial.

That is the special events application for No Kings three. Next would be Alderson Crow. There you are. All right.

Thank you, Chair. I was going to separate out the special event application. Alder Hartzom already took care of that. Thank you.

Okay, great. Thank you.

Alderperson Meltzer. Thank you. I'd like to separate from Board of Health twenty six-two eighty five, the environmental health lodging fee schedule.

Got it. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. We will start with the item from CDC, which is the number 20Six-three04, the resolution twenty twenty six-one, support and authorize the submittal of a community development investment grant to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation by Longcheng Marketplace. We oh, we do have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? Other person Fenton.

Thank you, chair. Just want to reiterate my support for the city's support of this grant. And just for a point of clarification for people who have not maybe didn't watch the committee video, this is not any liability for the city. The city can advocate and essentially sponsor one of these grants. And what we're being asked here is for the city's support to receive the state grant.

Seconding what Ms. Tao said and what Ms. Roberts said. Longcheng is an opportunity for people to start a small business and grow that business. But I think more than that, and the reason that I support this grant so much, is because it's become such a community center, especially in an area of the city where we need more places like that. So I urge my colleagues to support this. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Alder Wolf?

Thank you, chair. Just all the person's I couldn't agree more that Longcheng is definitely an environment where our community gets to come together. They've always done a fantastic job of bringing this community together. So I definitely support their future endeavors to do more of that. It's fantastic. Thank you.

Any other discussion? Alder Meltzer.

Thank you. I think that this is such a great opportunity for our community. I think it's also really great to see how Longcheng marketplace has grown and how Mayo Tao really has this vision and this inspiration. She makes wonderful things in our city and then doesn't stop there and is looking for ways to continue to build on them and make them better. So I'm very proud that this is before us tonight for us to support. Thank you.

Any other discussion? Hearing none, please cast your votes. Alright. That motion passes 12 to zero. The next item is from Safety and Licensing, 02/60259, the No Kings III Special Event Application.

Could we get a motion and a second? We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? Alder Hartzheim.

Thank you, chair.

At this point, I intend to vote to approve the reversal of the denial. And really, I want it to be clear to the public that that is what we're approving tonight. We're not approving the actual application because most of us on the council haven't even seen the actual application or the new route or anything else that's been stated. I have deep concerns about wishy washy deadlines, and that is what has kind of held me back in this regard. But all along, I have seen the value of this particular approval of the denial or disapproval of the denial because there are advantages to the community safety involved in this particular event.

Again, I want to make it very clear that we're not approving the application. And we as a council, if we vote to approve the reversal of the denial, are not making a statement about the particular event. Thank you.

Alder Meltzer.

Thank you. I just wanted to say that I really appreciate that the organizers took it upon themselves to prioritize community safety and take the initiative to reach out to the city and see how they could do the most they could to really make sure that they were doing everything they could as organizers to make this a safe event. I think that they have been innovative, worked within a time crunch. And I think that just the amount of collaboration between different groups and between city staff has been really impressive. I think that these are very responsible individuals.

And action, when you have a lot of people showing up to voice their First Amendment rights, that is a spontaneous and grassroots exercise. These organizers are really stepping in as outsiders to try to provide a safety framework. And I think that that's very, very commendable. They could have just decided to stay home and let whatever happens in Houdini Plaza happen, but they didn't. And I think that that just shows what a great, caring community we live in. Thank you.

Thank you. Alderperson Croak.

Thank you, chair. I appreciate the opportunity to say a few words on this. This is the second time that this has been sent to counsel on a five-zero vote to recommend approval of application. Really, only reason and this was stated by the applicant or by the representative during public participation. The the only reason this is on committee and council agenda is because the application was late.

But I do appreciate all the work that's been done since that application was submitted, the work by the organizers, and then the work by city staff to try to find, an outcome here. My only question would be is, just to confirm that nothing has changed since the safety licensing committee met last week in regards to the traffic control plan and, support from APD and public works. If we could just get confirmation, that nothing has changed, I just wanna make sure that, you know, what we voted on at committee is still exactly what is before us tonight. So and I would recommend following the recommendation of the Safety and Licensing Committee to approve this application.

Thank you, Alder Kraut. Chief Olsson, Director Hu, go ahead. To answer the question from the police department's perspective to my knowledge nothing has changed since our meeting last week thank you clerk monitor would you have any information regarding the traffic plan or should we ask Director Youngworth? Okay, Director Youngworth, go ahead. Our staff has had the opportunity to review and is supportive as presented. Thank you. Alder Krowick, does that answer your question?

Yes, it does. Thank you for that.

You're welcome. Any other discussion on this item? Seeing none, please cast your votes. That motion passes 12 to zero. The last item we have separated out is from the Board of Health.

It's 260,285 to approve the environmental health lodging fee schedule as identified in the attached document. Do we have a motion? Yes, we have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? Alder Meltzer.

Thank you. I have two questions that I'd like to address to Health Director Seepers. One, in the accompanying memo, some of the fees are going up and some of them are going down. Based on the memo, I was expecting to see increases, but I wasn't expecting to see decreases. So I'd just like some context for that. And then my second question is, do we actually have entities with licenses for 10 to 19 units or 20 plus units? Just wondering about those categories. Thank you very much.

Health Officer Sleepers? Director won. Okay. There we go.

Yep. So to the first question, have fees gone down? Fees have not gone down. Prior to the state action on ACP 72, excuse me, there was only one category. And that was ATRH.

And so our license fee at that time was $350 Since then, those new categories have been built out. So there is a TRH at one unit, TRH from two to four units, TRH license at five to nine units, TRH license from 10 to 19 units, and then TRH license at 20 plus units. So those are the new categories. So with that, looking at the new reimbursement, which is based on the new state fees, which have risen, what we did was go back and create a budget neutral license fee schedule based based on those categories and the distribution of the TRHs that would fit within that new category. So there weren't any licenses that have gone down.

If you're referring to the fee schedule that contains the column of current fees and you see let's see, the pre inspection fee for TRH, two to four units from 700 to 1,400, for example, with that new fee being $6.45. That is a hypothetical based on the category that did not quite exist in that previous time frame. So it's hypothetical. It doesn't actually exist. It's based on that single TRH license.

So you'll see that in that column, on the right most column, 425, 645, 79860, and so on. That's based on, again, those new categories versus the single license type previously. So that with that being three fifty, they've all increased because the lowest one is 425.

Did that answer your question on that item? Yes. Okay. And then the next item was about the large number of units. I didn't write down exactly what number that was.

Yeah. I think we've got I've got that one. So using the new TRH licensing categories, 128 of our TRH license are in that one unit category. Five licenses would fall within that two to four unit category. And then we have two licenses that fall within that five to nine tier H category.

We do anticipate one or two within that 10 or 19 or the 20 to 39, depending on how that goes. But at this time, we do not have any licenses in that category or the 20 plus category.

Any other questions or discussion?

Oh, go ahead. I was just going to say thank you.

Okay, thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, please cast your votes. That motion passes eleven-zero with one abstention from Alderson Schultz. We'll note your abstention, Alder Schultz.

And that takes care of all of the items that we had separated out. So if there are no others, we will move oh, I'm sorry. I'll entertain a motion not to approve the balance of the agenda. Oh, before that? Okay. Oh, yes. We do have a consolidated action item. We never have that when I do this. Okay. We have a consolidated action item, two six zero three five six.

It's consolidating the action items from safety and licensing 02/60310 and 02/1998 from finance committee. The budget amendment related to the Wisconsin DOJ law enforcement drug trafficking trafficking response grant. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion on the consolidated action items? Alright.

Hearing none, we'll cast your votes. That motion passes 12 to zero. So now I would entertain a motion thank you, Attorney Barron to approve the balance of the agenda. We do have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Hearing none, please cast your votes. That motion passes 12 to zero. We do not have any items held this evening. I do need a motion on the ordinances, please. We have a motion and a second to approve.

Any discussion on the ordinances? Hearing none, please cast your votes. That motion passes 12 to zero. License applications and communications referred to committees of jurisdiction and resolutions submitted by all their persons referred to committees of jurisdiction. Clerk Malitor, have there been any resolutions submitted? There have not. All right. Any other council business then? Alder Herzheim?

Thank you, chair. We had some record snow, if anyone hadn't noticed. And I would like to give some praise to the DPW and the rest of city staff involved with trying to clean up the city after this. I know that there's been a lot of folks disappointed or angry about the response to the snow. And I've tried to be as judicious as possible in telling people, what can you do when you're faced with this record snowfall? So again, I would like to extend some lauds to the DPW director and her staff and anyone else in the city that was involved with the response. Thank you.

Thank you. I had mostly praise. So almost 30 inches of snow in a few days. That's a lot of snow to move around, and we'll continue to move that around. Alderson Wolf.

Thank you, chair. Just to jump on the bandwagon, I would also like to thank DPW for their work and other city employees. I've spent the last few days driving around other parts of the state, and I have to say, like, not every road is perfect here in Appleton, but even the imperfect ones are a little bit better than their main roads in some other places. So without question, we're doing it right, and we're doing it well. So thank you for your work and leadership.

Thank you. Anyone else? Alder Meltzer.

Thank you. I'm going to jump on the bandwagon too, but I want to give a shout out to all of the neighbors who have been helping neighbors. I have heard more stories of neighbors helping each other out than I have heard complaints or concerns about the city's response. So that's awesome. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll just add that we always hear a lot about the plow drivers and DPW and our police department and fire department. Shout out to the facilities department because I'm sure they're quite busy as well. And to our communications because it's been really excellent. Anyone else? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. We have a motion and a second to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. Aye. We adjourn. Thank you.