Common Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, that's the reconsideration. And then if that passes, we take up 26-0758. Okay. Thank you. We'll continue on now with Alder Hartzheim.

Thank you, Chair. Under Finance 26-0998, request to approve the 2026 purchasing policy, please.

All right.

Others?

Alder Schultz? Thank you, Chair, from Parks and Rec, both 26-0974 and 26-0976. That is the peace poll.

AND THE KINETIC WIND SCULPTURES. ANY OTHERS?

ALL RIGHT. SO WE WILL TAKE IT UP AS SAFETY AND LICENSING THAT THESE ARE UNDER ITEMS HELD. The first is 26-1009, reconsideration of item 26-0758, review options for truancy ordinance. Is there a motion on the reconsideration? And it looks like we have restored the Granicus system. So we can try. Yeah.

OK.

I have a point of order on the motion for this.

Alder Crote has a. Thank you. Go ahead. Does the motion need to be made by someone on the prevailing side or a member that was absent? Yes. Thank you.

OK. We have a motion from Alder Hayden for reconsideration. Need a second. also eligible to do so. Oh, anybody can second. All right, we do have a second. We have a motion and a second. We're seeing it up here on our end, so we may be back up and running on Granicus here. Go ahead. OK. Well, we have a motion and a second, so we'll keep trying. And you can push buttons as they appear. We're going to continue so we have a motion and a second for reconsideration All right any discussion All right hearing none all those in favor. Please signify by saying aye aye those opposed I'm going to call division. We I don't have a clear sense of the vote We'll before we do a roll call actually are you are you prepared to call the roll?

I'm prepared to hold

Do you have voting buttons? Some of you do. All right, we're going to call the roll. We're going to call the roll on the reconsideration. Oh, yeah, go ahead.

Alderperson Lambrecht. Aye. Alderperson Meltzer. Aye. Alderperson Perkis.

Aye.

Alderperson Smith. Aye. Alderperson Van Zeeland. Aye. Alderperson Fenton. Aye. Alderperson Hayden. Alderperson Heffernan. Aye. Alderperson Schultz. Aye. Alderperson Stancil Martin. Aye. Alderperson Wolff. Aye. Alderperson Hartzheim. Aye. Alderperson Kropp. Aye. Alderperson Doherty.

Aye.

All right.

OK. Oh, . All right the eyes have it item is up for reconsideration need a motion on 26-07 58 resolution 7r 26 review options for truancy ordinance We have a motion to approve We have a motion and a second to approve we'll open the floor for discussion looks like our buttons are still inconclusive I based on looks on your faces. So we'll manage the queue manually. All right. Oh, Alder Hartzheim.

ALDER HARTZHEIM Thank you, Chair. I always appreciate everyone who comes to publicly speak at these meetings, because it's hard to do. And folks aren't necessarily very comfortable doing so. And I try to take into account everyone's statements. The things that came forward in my mind from the public statements in this regard are, and the people that are opposed to this reinstatement of the truancy ordinance are that this will require extensive research for a long period of time. But yet they don't want another year of this in order to get more research. One of the speakers said that he or she wanted more data in this regard. Let's have more data. Yet they don't want to have another year of this truancy ordinance. So how can we get that additional research or more data if we don't do it? I heard a statement about holding students accountable, and that's punishment. And as a parent, I don't believe that holding a student accountable is punishment. It is how we teach children to be grown adults. We all have to be accountable for the things that are required of us. So I am very much in favor of another year of this trial period. I believe that waiting to try to get more data from not having this truancy ordinance in place leaves too many students out of the loop, unable to be reached. And the fact that the school district has some results showing that children were reached and that there was an increase, while we can't necessarily attribute that directly to the truancy ordinance, I believe that it is our duty to Give another try to see whether we can parse out whether that whether it is the truancy ordinance that has done that and I look for us to please Do that I would encourage my colleagues to? Give this another shot so we can see where this goes Thank you Alder crote

Thank you, Mayor. Well said, Alder Hartzheim. I agree with you wholeheartedly. I also appreciate the council's vote to reconsider this and the member that got it on our agenda for tonight so that we could actually take up the matter tonight. Because I think it's important if we're going to move forward with this for another year that we get it done before the start of the school year, which was one of the goals with the language in the resolution about the dates. A COUPLE THINGS. I WON'T RESTATE EVERYTHING I STATED AT THE LAST COUNCIL MEETING, BUT I DID WANT TO REITERATE MY APPRECIATION FOR THE WORK THAT THE DISTRICT DID OVER THE PAST YEAR AND THE COMMITTEE MEMBERS IN EVALUATING ALL OF THAT INFORMATION THAT WAS SHARED WITH US. IN MY OPINION, AND IT WAS STATED BY SUPERINTENDENT HARCHES, EVERYTHING THAT THEY PROVIDED WAS WHAT IS ESSENTIALLY WHAT WE ASKED FOR DURING THE ENTIRE FIRST TRIAL. And I really don't see the harm in approving this for another year to get more data to look at. I think it's important to note that passage of this resolution does not make it permanent. It establishes the ordinance for another school year. And I think that's important because we all are concerned about what this once was or what could potentially be. And I don't want to go there because I don't think the district has any intentions of getting anywhere close to that. As far as the punitive part of it, I struggle a bit with that too, but I don't see the district using it as a punitive measure. And I think it's also important to note that There was comments made about how the district is using this early versus late. I think it's important to note that they really need to use it throughout the entire process, early being the communication about what it is and what could happen, and late being as in the last pull of the tool out of the toolbox is the citation. And what we've seen is over the course of the last year, they haven't done that. They haven't used it as that tool. I THINK THERE WAS ONE CITATION, AND I THINK THEY'VE BEEN VERY CAREFUL ABOUT HOW THEY'RE USING THE TOOL, BUT I'VE ALSO LEARNED THAT IT'S IMPORTANT FOR THEM TO HAVE THE TOOL, AND I WOULD HOPE THAT THIS COUNCIL COULD GET BEHIND ANOTHER ONE-YEAR TRIAL, GET MORE DATA, AND THEN EVALUATE WHERE WE WANT TO GO AFTER THAT. THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER ALDER SMITH.

Oh, there we go.

Thank you, Chair. We've all thought about this issue a lot, so I don't want to go and we probably all have an opinion in our mind about this. And I just wanted to talk about my sense of where this is in a procedural way and how we view our role as council. I appreciate what Alders Crote and Hartzheim were saying. AGREE WITH WHAT THEY WERE SAYING. BUT WE'RE WORKING WITH AASD WHICH INCLUDES TEACHERS, PEOPLE WHO ARE ON THE FRONT LINE OF WORKING WITH STUDENTS AND SEE THE PROBLEM WITH ATTENDANCE, ESPECIALLY FOLLOWING COVID. But it's not just teachers. It's also AASD admin. And they're reliant not just on published research, but talking to peers in other schools and districts around the state of Wisconsin and beyond even. And then finally, an elected school board. And I have no doubt that there was division on the school board, as they argued and debated a lot of the same points that we have here. And so these are the people whose full-time position and full-time work is around answering these questions. This is their expertise. And When it comes to our role as counsel, well, how does that fit in with these elected decision makers and a whole body of people who are, with all goodwill and good intention, trying to make a difference in students' lives? What is our role as counsel? And to me, it's to ask the final question, which is, is this consistent with our values? When we see the citations, the evidence of how that's working, and what what the eventual punishments might be. Is that consistent with our values as a community? Is the number of citations, is it in our judgment justice and fairness that is being represented there? And that is a kind of final, higher level role that we have of oversight. And last meeting, it was to do a lot of us, even if we're voted against this, compliment AASD for their time, for their work, for their judiciousness. And so I think we all have a sense of the well-meaning and careful work that AASD has done in bringing this to us. And I just think we should be very, very careful about deciding this question for ourselves, that we have an insight that these people, this is their full-time work, what they're focused on, what they do. We know their well-meaning and working hard at this. That is where this decision should be made. And we should be more comfortable with our role of oversight on the larger question of values. And next year, we'll have another chance to come back around to look at this. What strikes me from the data and the testimonies that we've gotten is they've been very judicious and careful in handing out these citations, with one being given out this year, if anything, It's been perhaps even criticized as being overly conservative in the way they've gone about kind of rolling out this tool. But it's definitely been judicious. So I hope that we can correct this and send this forward and continue to give the education experts in our community a chance to work this out for another year AND WE WILL CONTINUE WITH OUR STRONG OVERSIGHT ROLE AS THIS COMES BACK TO US NEXT YEAR. THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER ALDER SCHULTZ.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU, MAYOR. OBJECTIVELY I'M NOT NECESSARILY OPPOSED TO THIS NOTION OF HOLDING A STICK IN FRONT OF STUDENTS TO MAKE THEM ACCOUNTABLE. really can't argue that it hasn't been effective. We've heard that it actually has been effective in this trial period, although it's difficult to ascertain what is actually making that difference. And it is possible that this threat is making a difference, and I'm not going to argue that point. I think that's potentially the case. However, I still remain concerned, as I have from the beginning of this discussion, that while We might argue that holding students accountable is not punishment. There are half of the dispositions allowed by the court which are financially punitive. And I think our punishment, not just to the students, but to the parents, one, three, and five of those dispositions all carry potentially significant financial burden for families who might find themselves very far down the path. Now, we've heard that only one case was One student was given a citation in this first chunk of the trial period. I believe there was a number thrown out the last time we had a discussion about potentially 10 if this continues. If that number goes up over, if this becomes a thing and we establish it and then this is our norm, how far does that number rise and how many parents will find themselves facing significant financial challenges if they are expected to recoup the cost of counseling or work programs or other community services, I just think that's untenable. And I could potentially support this if we got rid of those financial dispositions, but then you've taken the stick away. So I get that there's potential for this to make a positive impact on student attendance. However, some of the anecdotal conversations I've had specifically with a public defender is that most of the students he sees in this situation, again, they're not doing it because they want to. They're doing it because they may have to stay home and take care of their siblings. because their parents are both working, they have no other options, or that child might be having to do some work to support the family financially. So those concerns remain kind of high priority for me. I realize that as it stands, we have one citation, so they're very low probability. But if we move forward and this becomes established, then that concern just rises. You know, if it passes for another year and we extend the trial, maybe those numbers can also be captured. And we'll go through this process again in reviewing just how punitive this might be, not just for the students, but for the families. But at least for this evening, I would continue to vote no on the truancy ordinance. Thank you. Alder Hayden.

Thank you, Chair. THIS HAS BEEN SOMETHING I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT A LOT, AND I THINK WHEN MS. SWIFT SPOKE EARLIER IT KIND OF SUMMARIZED MY THOUGHTS THAT ARE A BIT ALL OVER THE PLACE AS WELL. I'VE BEEN SPENDING A LOT OF TIME TALKING TO PEOPLE IN MY COMMUNITY AND TALKING TO PEOPLE ON THE SCHOOL BOARD, TALKING TO MEMBERS OF THE DISTRICT, TRYING TO GET A SENSE. I'VE HEARD STORIES OF PARENTS OF STUDENTS WHO HAVE CHILDREN WHO ARE NEURODIVERGENT, PARENTS OF STUDENTS WHO HAVE HEALTH ISSUES. that are concerned about their kids and the attendance policy. I've talked to people who told me their concerns about being bullied as a kid, and I have concerns about marginalized communities as well and the impact this will have. I'm also concerned about the numbers that we see. I feel like the numbers that we see aren't statistically significant, and the line of regression that we see SINCE COVID, IT'S CONSISTENTLY IMPROVING TO THE POINT WHERE IT'S HARD TO REALLY SAY THAT THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL. AT THE SAME TIME, I THINK The value that I see out of this program are the people who are working on it and my conversations with the attendance coordinators, the effort that they put in, and what one school board member and myself described as a series of safety net after safety net to attempt to catch students before we get to the point of citations. And the point of the citation isn't TO BE A PUNITIVE MEASURE, BUT AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO REDIRECT STUDENTS INTO THAT SAFETY NET PIPELINE. IT'S BECAUSE OF THEIR WORK THAT I AM LOOKING TO SUPPORT THIS RESOLUTION. MY EXPECTATIONS IF THIS PASSES ARE TO LOOK AT WHERE THESE CITATIONS ARE BEING COMMUNICATED TO STUDENTS. I KNOW FROM CONVERSATIONS WITH THEM IT'S COMMUNICATED EARLY IN THE YEAR WHERE ALL SCHOOL POLICIES ARE REVIEWED. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE after that point if someone is on the path to receiving a citation that we put that off as far as possible just to help students with the the potential mental impacts of discussing citations I THINK I WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THIS, SEE WHAT THE SCHOOL DISTRICT DOES WITH THE FULL YEAR. BUT I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO SEE A FOCUS WHEN WE'RE TALKING ABOUT STUDENTS, BEING FOCUSED LESS ON THE STUDENTS WHO ARE SUCCESS STORIES AROUND THE PROGRAM. Focus more on the students who are harder to reach because I feel like in all the studies that we got this past year Those stories were omitted and I think those are the stories that we need to be talking about more.

Thank you chair Anyone else like to speak Alder Fenton Thank You chair

I have a hard time with this because, as I've said many times, I am the child of teachers. I have two public school teachers for children. I loved school as a kid. School was a safe place for me. But I was a neurotypical kid who had a house to come home to. who had enough to eat at night, who had parents who believed in school, and would provide me with the tools I needed to be successful there. And I think a lot of us are in that situation. And I voted for the trial period. after many, many provisions were put in place by my colleagues to make the district accountable. But I've done more reading. I've talked to some constituents. I've listened to what people have said here. And it was a conversation with one constituent that has really stuck with me. And thinking of the ideal situation is we write a truancy ticket. There is discussion. It gets dismissed. But then we think about the proportion of people who come from families who either innately don't trust institutions, particularly legal courts, or who have, through what's going on in society now, have come to not trust them. So yes, it's simple. We write a citation, the student and the parent. If the parent is available, go and we work out a solution that helps the student attend school. If these people are afraid to appear in a governmental institution like that, then they're subject to failure to appear. And regardless of whether we want it to be that way, they can get into the system. So I think that we have to, while appreciating the amazing work that the school district and the dedicated people are doing, I want schools to be places where everybody can feel safe. And I want the supports that are being given for attendance to be aimed at making students feel welcome and valued and an important part of the school. And I just fear that despite all of our best intentions, when we bring legal government institutions into an environment where the most vulnerable people, the people who are most subject to being faced with that, are afraid of them, I don't think we're going to do what we want to do. For those reasons, I will not be voting to continue this program.

Thank you.

Anyone else who'd like to speak?

Hearing none, we have a motion and a second to approve. We'll need a roll call. Yep. We'll have a roll call vote.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Alderperson Lambrecht. Aye. Alderperson Meltzer. Nay. Alderperson Ferkus. Alderperson Ferkus. Just barely. Alderperson Smith.

Aye.

Alderperson Van Zeeland. Nay. Alderperson Benton. Nay. Alderperson Hayden. Alderperson Heffernan? Aye. Alderperson Schultz? Aye. Alderperson Stancil-Martin? Aye. Alderperson Wolff? Aye. Alderperson Hartzheim? Aye. Alderperson Crote? Aye. Alderperson Doherty?

Aye.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, correct.

All right, there are seven ayes, six nays, and one abstention. By council rules, really statutorily, eight votes are required in the affirmative to pass any item. Therefore, this fails. All right, moving along, we will go to the items from Parks and Recreation. First is 26-0974, approve the installation of a peace pole within Elancourt Peace Park. We need a motion. We have a motion and a second to approve. We'll open the floor for discussion.

Alder Smith. Thank you, Chair. I'd just like to ask, just looking at the pictures, it looks like there's kind of a line. We've got the Peace Pole, whatever that name is, and then these wind things. Kinetic wind sculptures. And I just would wonder if I could ask Director Flick just about, does this amount to kind of THE GOALS FOR ELLEN COURT PEACE PARK OR TREES AROUND THIS AS WELL OR JUST A SENSE OF THE LONGER TERM WHERE THAT PARK IS GOING? DIRECTOR FLICK.

THANK YOU, CHAIR. THIS FITS IN LINE WITH THE ELLEN COURSE PEAT PARKS MASTER PLAN IN HAVING ARTWORK ALONG THE TRAILS AND THE RIVER. THERE'S AN AREA THAT'S BETWEEN THE EXISTING TRAIL AND THE RIVER THAT IS FLAT GRASS. SO BETWEEN TREES AND NATIVE VEGETATION ALONG THE SHORELINE THAT WOULD SERVE AS AN IDEAL LOCATION FOR THE WIND SCULPTURES AND THE PEACE POLE. SO THEY'LL BE STRATEGICALLY PLACED IN THAT AREA OF THE PARK AND SHOULD CAPTURE THE WIND COMING OFF THE RIVER.

There you have it.

Further discussion? Hearing none, we have a motion and a second to approve. Do you have buttons?

All right. Great.

Look at that. Alder Doherty, how do you vote? We lost your video. Just a sound, positive or negative sound, we would. All right. We'll mark him absent for that vote. All right. First, the motion passes. Motion passes. Did you have a question, Alder Hartzheim?

The question was just answered, Chair. I was wondering whether the actual alderman and the related vote would be shown, and it has. Thank you.

Yes, with much more detail than we've ever had. All right, moving along then. Also from Parks and Recreation, 26-0976, approve installation of kinetic wind sculptures in Allen Court Peace Park. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion on the kinetic wind sculptures? Hearing none, please cast your votes. This is on the kinetic wind sculptures. If you'd like to cast a vote, all right, aye. All right, that motion passes 12 to 0 with one abstention, Alder Schultz. All right, item's been approved. On to Alder Meltzer.

Just a question about the new system that we have. The voting options allowed voters to select the option of being excused. Is that something that we should avoid using?

Yes. You have three options. You've got aye, nay, or abstain.

And excused is not synonymous with abstain.

Do not, yeah. If you try and pull that, I'm going to call you on it. You get three. In here, we got three options.

So yeah, we'll play with the settings a little bit. There's some detail things.

Right now, we're just happy we have buttons. So you have your buttons. Thank you. But yes, please, thank you for the clarification. Please do not use the fourth option, the forbidden vote. All right. Moving along to finance committee. This is 26. Wait. 998. No. We want the purchasing policy. 0998.

Okay. Okay.

This is 26-0998, request to approve the 2026 purchasing policy. We have a motion and a second to approve. We'll open the floor for discussion. Alder Hartzheim.

Thank you, Chair. I want to make apologies to the Finance Committee, as I had wished to be there but could not be there. But I do have a question, if I could please ask of the Finance Director. Do we have evidence of how this may affect competitive bidding in the future? Because these numbers are a much lower threshold, a much higher threshold. So it seems that less would be required, and that seems to me to be potentially detrimental to the taxpayer. So I'm concerned about that particular item and hope that Director Messerschmitt can address that.

Director Messerschmitt.

So the purpose of this was state statute had actually changed for public highway construction projects, which needed to be changed because it was changed at the state level. So we needed to update ours. And just part of the other, sorry. That's OK. Part of the other reason we went in and made those adjustments is it's more in line with what most communities are doing. The policy hasn't been updated since 2017, I think. Or 2015. So it was one that we need to get those thresholds updated to be in line with what the state is requiring and also to be more realistic to what stuff actually costs today versus what it costs in 2015.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I do still have concern in that regard, just again, competitive bidding-wise. But I do have respect for the director and the finance department in their way of addressing this.

Thank you. Rest assured, we're going to continue to be stingy.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, we have a motion and a second to approve. Please cast your votes. All right, that motion passes 13 to 0. The item has been approved. All right, that's it for separate votes. Need a motion on the balance of the agenda. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion on the balance? Hearing none, please cast your votes. All right, that motion passes 13 to 0. The balance of the agenda has been approved. We have no consolidated action items. We've addressed our held item. Oh, no, we haven't. Got excited. We have one more. Yeah, we do have a held item here. Forgive me. I got ahead of myself. This is 26-0432, resolution 2R26, supporting vegetation analysis and advancing a data-informed mowing reduction strategy. Looking for a motion.

We have a motion to approve. Looking for a second.

We have a motion and a second to approve. We'll open the floor for discussion. Alder Hartzheim.

Thank you, Chair. It was my understanding that most of the impetus for this resolution has been essentially resolved. And it has been my stance since, I don't know, ever, to not vote in favor of resolutions that don't really call for action on the part of the council. So I will be voting against this. But again, I believe that most of the impetus for this resolution has been satisfied already.

Thank you. FURTHER DISCUSSION? HEARING NONE, WE HAVE A MOTION AND A SECOND TO APPROVE. PLEASE CAST YOUR VOTES. THAT MOTION PASSES 10-3. THE ITEM HAS BEEN APPROVED. ON TO THE ORDINANCES. LOOKING FOR A MOTION. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion on the ordinances? Hearing none, please cast your votes.

Oh, yeah, OK. New system.

Motion passes 13 to 0. The ordinances have been approved. License applications and communications referred to committees of jurisdiction. Resolution submitted by alders referred to committees of jurisdiction. Have there been any resolutions submitted?

There have not.

OK. On to other business. The first is, actually, and it's the only now, this is 26-1031, resolution 10R26, extending tornado state of emergency. There's a motion, but we cannot get to it. All right. Well, we have a motion and a second to approve. Yeah.

We see that here, but we can't get to it.

So thank you. Thank you for your motion and your second. Open the floor for discussion. Alder Hartzheim.

Thank you, Chair. Could you please do us the favor of giving a brief overview of the purpose of this? My concern is like a long-term period of time where the mayor is king.

Yes, I'd be happy to explain this. On Monday, the 27th of July, a tornado struck the city of Appleton. We immediately convened an emergency operations center and began working our way through our procedures for responding to these types of events. One of the steps in that process is a local proclamation of emergency, which is spelled out in state statutes. And what that initial step SETS IN MOTION IS OUR EVENTUAL IF WE EXCEED OUR AVAILABLE RESOURCES AS A MUNICIPALITY TO THEN SEEK SUPPORT FROM THE COUNTY AND ULTIMATELY THE COUNTY CAN MAKE REQUESTS TO WISCONSIN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OR WEM AND THEN WEM CAN MAKE REQUESTS TO THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY. SO THIS IS THE LOCAL MOST STEP IN THAT EMERGENCY OR DISASTER PROCLAMATION OR DECLARATION PROCESS. It also allows us to move quickly in response and deploy resources. It allows for emergency procurement. And in this case, I'm not aware of any significant purchases. There were no significant purchases required in our immediate response. We don't, frankly, anticipate emergency procurement moving forward. So that's really not a component of this. However, we are continuing in our response and recovery efforts as a city. We announced today our plan for the brush hauling, so that information has been put out to the community. We are also providing support to our neighbors in Menasha. We've engaged with the city of Menasha in a memorandum of understanding to provide some support. from our city departments, largely technical assistance to the city of Menasha. And so those are the kinds of actions that the emergency proclamation can enable. And the reason for seeking an extension is really twofold. So under state statutes, the mayor can proclaim a disaster or emergency. However, that requires ratification from the Common Council. And so the council, when it meets, can vote to ratify it. It does not invalidate the action that was taken by the mayor in the immediate aftermath of an incident. However, we would seek ratification of, so this action would be twofold, ratification of the emergency and an extension And to your point, Alder Hartzheim, I've asked for four weeks of extension. If for some reason we need to extend this beyond four weeks, we would have to come back for further discussion with the council. At this point, I don't anticipate that. Well, it's entirely possible. My sense is that the next few weeks are going to be critical in terms of response. And again, honestly, right now, as we're working our way through our own cleanup, hauling of brush, addressing the outstanding issues in the community, we are also providing support not only to Appletonians, but to our fellow Fox Cities residents. So the Malt Agency Resource Center that we operated in the city of Appleton, we opened to all residents in the Fox Cities. It is possible that our friends in Menasha will need further assistance in the form of support from the Department of Public Works. And so we'd like to be able to move quickly and nimbly to help them as they continue to navigate. So that's really the purpose of asking for the ratification and extension of the emergency. And our team knows even when an emergency is proclaimed for the city of Appleton, my expectation is that procurement, while it can be done on an emergency basis, needs to be discussed, and we need to maintain strong internal control. So even in the immediate aftermath, our team knows. And we've exercised emergency procurement provisions in the past for critical equipment, say, in our utilities, where we need to move quickly to make sure our systems stay on line. But again, the team understands our expectations. We're going to maintain financial controls. So that's the purpose for seeking the extension. And I'm happy to take any other questions that the council may have. Thank you. Anyone else? Alder Schultz? Thank you, Chair.

It doesn't pertain to the extension, but it does pertain to disaster recovery and the burden on our citizens. A significant number of them had tree losses on their private property that didn't actually cause any structural damage to property, so they're not covered by their insurance policies. But a lot of people have been spending a significant amount of money to remove those trees. A couple of them have asked. Is the city considering, are there options for them to recoup some costs related to tree removals? I just don't know if that conversation has begun yet. Will it begin, or what kind of options you guys are talking about?

Right now, the city of Appleton does not have funds, and we do not do private tree work. And in terms of resources that may be available, there are a number of community organizations that are actively making grants to provide support and even, as I understand it, some individual assistance. So my suggestion would be there is a multi-agency resource center that will be opening, I believe, tomorrow. Starting tomorrow, there's a new multi-agency resource center that's being stood up. And that is also open to residents of the Fox Cities. So that's one place where folks might be able to go and talk to some organizations directly. As a part of this process, we will seek, if we can, we will seek resources, state and federal resources. However, there are loss thresholds that have to be met, financial loss thresholds for municipal support. So funding that may come back and support our costs as a city. But then also a similar situation, there are thresholds that need to be met for property losses before individual assistance might be made available. That's a longer running process. So my suggestion in the immediate term would be to steer folks toward the multi-agency resource center. 2-1-1 is also a great resource so people can get in touch with 2-1-1. 2-1-1 is also sharing information. They're sharing it with funders, organizations when they make referrals. They're also sharing that back with home municipalities. So we're getting real-time information from 2-1-1. So that's also a good resource for people to call or text to get plugged in with potential options.

Will there be a press release when that multi-agency has stood up?

I believe that they have been promoting that, and Winnebago County has been sharing that information, so folks can find out more about that. We've been cross-posting on City Social about the new multi-agency resource center, and the Winnebago County website also has some information about that.

Thank you.

Alder Wolf.

Thank you, Chair. Good job. I'll continue. I do have one little clarification, but in general, I want to say that the response to everything that has happened has been exceptionally good, fast, and efficient, as well as well communicated. Of course, there is a lot of work to do still, so I do definitely support us continuing to have this because there is a lot of work left to do as I find out every day. One question I do have is about the brush pickup when people are When we're going around to collect, I know that on the original post, we did have that we needed to have it bundled or bagged. And I am a little concerned about that due to the size of some of the trees that fell. If they weren't kind of scooped up, that might be a little difficult for people. Could we get a clarification on whether or not we will or won't pick that up? Director Youngworth.

I was fishing. I guessed wrong. Okay, go ahead.

Yeah, so we it's a general guideline. So we will give grace in a little bit of leniency in some of that. But it is a guideline. If it can be done, we would greatly appreciate it because it's going to expedite the effort and time that it takes for our staff to pick up. And also the weight of the material, you know, can be problematic. Machining, making that maneuverability with that those large limbs. So general guideline, but we will not be out there with a tape measure ensuring the size of the limbs.

And there is a lot of material down, so especially in the harder hit areas of the city. And I think this is hard for folks who weren't in that in that immediate area to understand. And I understand. I'm sympathetic to it. In a way, I'm actually grateful, because if folks don't have that sense of perspective about how much material is on the ground, how significant the tree loss is in those neighborhoods, it means that they were heeding our requests to not go to areas that they did not need to be. So I appreciate that people heeded that, however, You may not have a sense of perspective about how significant the tree damage is in some of our hardest hit neighborhoods in the city. There is a lot of material down. This is also why we need to focus our brush collection approach to the specific area that we've limited to, because just that area is going to take an awful lot of time. And it's drawing from the same crews that would ordinarily be doing the other critical summer work that we need to be getting done before it gets too cold. So that's the reason why we've narrowed into this particular zone. And I understand that that's caused some frustration and concern in the community. I can appreciate that. But we do need to be focused because there's a lot of material on the ground. There's a lot to be collected. I would also ask for your help in communicating to residents that this brush collection is not the time to go grab the pile of stuff you've been meaning to take to the yard waste site and put it on the terrace. It is not the time to do some pruning that you didn't get caught up with. That is not going to help our crews get our work done. The other thing is it could make it harder for us to redeploy some assistance to Menasha. And so we need help from our residents in respecting the fact that this is about the trees that came down, the brush that came down, the public trees, getting that material hauled off so that we can get on with our other work, including helping our neighbors. Your assistance in communicating that to residents would be appreciated. I know you've all been doing a lot of communication with constituents, and there's a wide range of perspectives on this, as there are on many issues. But I appreciate the help in bridging those understandings, helping people have a sense of what's going on here. And Director Youngworth, again.

Just to put out perspective, I was given a number today of approximately how much material that we've hauled brush-wise, and we're at 5,000 cubic yards. It's 360 triaxial loads that we've pulled in, so like three-story building type. One of our yard waste attendants, and this is obviously not an accurate or definitive representation, his perception after being there for many years was just at the... Whitman's site was that he's like, I think it's like three years of material. And again, this that we normally see. So this is just a visual observation. That's not, you know, specific numbers, but just for perspective. And we are continually hauling. Our forestry crews have been out nonstop, taking limbs down, cutting trees, hauling terrace trees. So Yeah, it's just, to put it in perspective, it's been an ongoing process, and there's still a lot more to do, but it's a lot of material.

Yeah.

Yeah, enormous. Alder Meltzer.

Thank you. Our community response to this disaster has really demonstrated that the Fox Valley community is not defined by municipal boundaries, and I am so grateful grateful that the city of Appleton has the capacity to help Menasha. And I appreciate that the mayor has been talking about the Fox Cities. I do want to explicitly ask, though, do we have any kind of memorandum of understanding with Fox Crossing, and sort of what shape is Fox Crossing in, and what sort of capacity do we have for assisting them?

Yeah, absolutely. We've been in regular contact with all of our neighbors. So I've had conversations with Jeff Sturgill at Box Crossing. We've also been sending a representative to Winnebago County's EOC. So we've been plugged in with their communications and efforts. We're in regular communication. And I can tell you, I had relationships with all of the local administrators and mayors just through coffees, lunches, and things like that. All those relationships have become absolutely essential in the aftermath of this. So we're in regular communication. We're talking about the needs that we have, the needs that they have, and most importantly, looking out for all of our residents in our communities. We've been in active conversations with Fox Crossing also, and we'll continue to be in those conversations. Our focus over the last week has been, of course, on addressing the issues in the city of Appleton. That has been where our resources, especially our public works resources, have been focused. But our utilities have also been communicating with each other. Appleton Utilities has been in communication with Fox Crossing, with NENA, with Menasha. So they are in communication. Our health departments are working together. So, yeah, there's a lot of crossover happening, and we're certainly not forgetting about our neighbors, and they're not forgetting about us either. So we'll continue to do what we can to help. But, again, we've got to take care of our house first. But we are looking out for all of them. Alder Heffernan.

I just wanted to expand on the good job comment from Alder Wolf. In my day job, a large part, more than I wish, is crisis response. Gosh, I haven't felt helpless like that in such a long time and didn't know what to do, didn't know who to talk to, didn't know who to be helpful. I probably irritated half of this council here trying to figure out what to do. But having to sit down and not go to where the danger was was something that was really hard. And I didn't. I stayed out. I did. Actually, today was the first time I was bringing some supplies to another one of my job's community partners that I was in Menasha. And I just... you just really don't get a perspective. And I didn't even go through all of the, I think Manderfield's just hit me in the heart so hard. That was really, really hard. But I just have seen so much from the city and health department, public works, community development, everybody over there, our firefighters, our police officers and the collaboration. And I'm, So glad to hear that our relationships with our neighbors are good and that the priority is getting it where it needs to go. I'm just I'm really glad that everything was in really good hands and that the management and the messaging from the mayor's office has been great. And I was even so, so happy to hear about talking about mental health. and taking care of the mental health. That goes for our directors, too, by the way. 988 is anonymous. So it's good work. That's all I got to say.

Thank you. Thank you. And I want to thank the council for your support of our city departments and our preparedness efforts as a city. And in particular, I want to call out an unsung hero of this, who is Cassidy Walsh, who's our emergency management coordinator. Yeah, she's incredible. And I can tell you that a big part of why the city of Appleton was able to respond as quickly as we were was because we take the time to practice. So we run tabletop exercises a couple times a year, at least, where we run through scenarios and we rehearse. And we make sure that we maintain our training in ICS so that we understand how these systems work and interface. It's also something that Alder Van Zeeland and I started with her council presidency. We also make sure that the Common Council president is trained, has a couple of FEMA trainings, so that in the event the council president has to serve as acting mayor, the council president is familiar with how those systems and structures work also. And as we saw from one of our neighboring communities, that was required in the city of Neenah. The mayor was unavailable. And I know it broke his heart to be unavailable, but it was unavailable, and the council president had to serve as acting mayor. So this is why we do these things. This is why. And it's a validation of the work that we put in ahead of time, and all of our teams were prepared to jump in immediately and get to work. In some cases, it was actually a matter of supervisors saying, hey, you've got to sit tight until the wind stops blowing, until the siren stops sounding, before you can get out in the field and get to work. And that's no kidding. So I appreciate you saying that, and that really is a credit to the team we have here at the City of Appleton and to the support of Cassidy Walsh, who coordinates those exercises and makes sure that we have what we need when the time comes to respond. Alder Meltzer.

ALDER MELTZER Thank you. I don't want to repeat what everyone has said with echoing these thanks. But also, thank you, Mayor Woodford. The video clips that you took consistently to update people, I think while so many people in the community were feeling so helpless and needed that real sense of leadership and guidance, you provided that on an emotional and psychological level. that I think really helped us to focus on our response instead of spiraling. And I really appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Unfortunately and fortunately, we have some experience with managing crisis. And as Alder Heffernan mentioned, mental health is something that we need to be cognizant of. fallen trees and the damage in the infrastructure and systems and all of that. But there is a significant mental health component. And it's actually something that we talk about in the Emergency Operations Center and with the leadership team also. And we worked with our Human Resources Department to make sure that EAP resources were lined up and that we were actively promoting that through our supervisors to our employees. That's a top-to-bottom thing that we do here, and so I appreciate the encouragement on that front. The same goes for members of council, too. Resources are available to you, so if you need help getting connected with those resources, please be in touch with the Human Resources Department. Happy to get you connected if you need it. It is very hard. It can be very hard when people are going through terrible things It can be very hard to sort of manage that emotional boundary, right, of being empathetic. We all care about people deeply in the community. That's why we do the things we do. But keeping yourself healthy and making sure that you're able to show up and do that work effectively for them, sometimes that needs some outside assistance, and we have that available for members of council too. So I appreciate the kind words. We have a lot more work to do, and our neighbors have a lot more work to do. So we will do what we can. We've got to keep our work moving forward as a city, but that's what this resolution is for in the immediate term. And we'll be back with council and sharing more information with you as this unfolds. But please know that we don't take this, I would not take this as a sort of blank check or blanket permission. I know it was said in jest, but this is not about anointing a king for the city of Appleton. This is making sure that we can continue to be nimble in our response for our residents and best we can for our neighbors. Is there any further discussion on the resolution? We have a motion and a second to approve. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, the ayes have it. We have none opposed. That item has been approved. All right, that takes care of other council.

Okay, some other business from Alder Wolf. Apologies. I don't know if Alderperson Daugherty is still here, but I would like to congratulate him on the birth of his grandchild, and I hope that he's having fun up there in Marquette. Awesome. Just to end on a positive note.

Yeah, congratulations to Alderperson Daugherty. Alder Lambretta.

So in addition to all of the... important work that was happening last week. The mayor and a couple of his team members took some time to actually meet with the Kenoji-Appleton partnership as their visit to City Hall as well. It was only a couple days after the natural disaster, but they actually shared some CONDOLENCE LETTERS FROM BOTH THE SISTER CITY GROUP AND THE MAYOR THEMSELVES, JUST SHARING THEIR ENCOURAGEMENT FOR A SPEEDY RECOVERY. SO THANK YOU, MAYOR AND YOUR TEAM, FOR BEING GREAT HOSTS FOR THEM ONCE AGAIN. THEY DID BRING SOME SNACKS, AS TENDS TO BE THE THING. THEY ALWAYS LIKE BRINGING SNACKS AND OMIYAGI. SO PLEASE BE SURE TO GRAB ONE OF THESE BEFORE HEADING OUT TODAY. BUT THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR HOSPITALITY.

Absolutely. I felt like a terrible host because I was working out of a backpack all week, and I just like breezed in. I said hi. We spent maybe 15, 20 minutes with them, so I wish we could have spent more time, but it was very nice to have them in town, and the letters were very nice, and so we appreciate the friendship with Kenoji. Any further other business, as it were? All right. With that, I need a motion to adjourn. We have a motion and a second to adjourn. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed?

All right.

We are adjourned. Thank you all.