Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening, everyone. We'll call this meeting of the Finance Committee to order on Monday, 04/06/2026, at 05:44PM. Let's rise for a 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 and justice for all.

Thank you, everyone. We'll do roll call of membership starting at my left, please.

Katie Van Zeeland, District 5. Denise Fenton, District 6.

Brad Furkus, District 3.

Sherry S. Hartzine, District 13.

And Chris Croat, District 14.

All right. And then Alder Croat, let's just note that Alder Croat is here, just remotely. So we'll do the best we can and move ahead with approval of the minutes from the previous meeting, twenty six-four thirty four, March.

Move to approve. Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Are there any questions or comments? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor? Aye. That's five ayes. That passes. We have no public hearings or appearances tonight, so we'll go right into action items with 26Dash0435 request to award 2026 Appleton wastewater tunnel painting project contract Howard Groth and Sons Incorporated in the amount of $189,985 with a contingency of 5% for a project total not to exceed $199,484

Move to approve. Second.

Alright, we have a motion second. Are there any questions on this item? Alder Hartzine.

Thank you, Chair. I'm wondering who might be able to answer this, Deputy Director Flick, or Acting Director Flick. How does this fit into the budget? I assume that we're perfectly fine, but are we you didn't mention anything in your memo about how it fits in the budget. Are we under budget? Where are we?

Director Ron, thank you.

Thank you, Chair. This 200,000 budget falls under utilities operations budget. I am not 100% sure what they have as a grand total, but the utilities director has informed us that this $200,000 is earmarked for the project, and we're within budget.

Excellent. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Abstentions? That passes five-zero. 20 36, request to award Appleton wastewater treatment plant MK tunnel roofing project contract to Crafts Incorporated in the amount of $137,665 with a contingency of 10% for a total project cost not to exceed 151,432

Move to approve. Second.

Alright. I have a motion. We have a second. Any questions or comments on this item? Alder Hartzheim.

I assume acting director Flick as well. Are we confident that this leaves enough project budget for the balance of the project? You showed that there was a fairly large amount, but this is definitely under that. Is there what else is there? And are we confident that there's enough room there?

I am not completely up to speed on what the entire project is. But what we have in front of us today meets what we are expecting to complete for improvements and needed repairs, and it is under budget.

Excellent. Thank

you. Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Abstentions? That passes five to zero. Next item up is 2042, request to approve unit W26 sewer and water reconstruction change order number two as a contract amendment in the amount of $40,000 for a new not to exceed contract total of $2,718,000 sorry, dollars 2,718,100 and an unchanged contract contingency of $60,000

Move to approve. Second.

All right, have a motion and a second. Are there any comments or questions on this item? Alder Otsein.

Director Youngworth or Deputy Director, Is this at all related, this excess what are we saying here? Sump pump discharge, is this at all related to the Northland Bel Air flood study? Are we seeing this as a result of some of that?

It's not a result from the flood study. This is rather than the result of severe weather conditions. This is a persistent water management issue related to not large volumes, but persistent volumes and drainage issues that occur in the vicinity of the sidewalk, the curb, and the front yards.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I mean, obviously 40,000 is not nothing, but I appreciate that we're trying to address it here on the front end.

Thanks. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Seeing none, we'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? That passes five to zero. Next item is 26Dash0445, request to approve the purchase of the Meridian Rapid Defense Group Barrier System.

Move to approve. Second.

All right.

I have

a motion and a second. So Mayor Woodford, you're here tonight. Director Two? All right. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair. So what you have before you this evening is a recommendation to acquire a new barrier system to protect crowds at events in the city of Appleton. We have piloted this system in the city of Appleton in the past. We've made attempts at securing congressionally directed spending dollars to support the purchase of a system like this. However, we're unsuccessful in previous attempts to secure funding that way.

As I outlined in the memo, the threat environment for large public gatherings in The United States continues to be heightened and increasingly so. And it's my concern that if we continue to simply rely on vehicles, and in particular vehicles provided by volunteers to create hardened event perimeters, we may be not doing all that we could to protect crowds and gatherings in our city. So I worked with our team internally to put together a proposal and the base system that we've designed would protect the perimeter of our farmers market, which is our largest recurring event. But the system is modular and it's very flexible. So it can be deployed for all sorts of events around the city, not strictly in the downtown area even.

So it will provide enough barriers for lots of events that we hold in the city of Appleton, will help supplement our efforts for those large scale events that we hold like an Oktoberfest where we'll still have to rely on heavy equipment at some of the intersections and entry points. However, this barrier system because it is portable and modular will allow us to shore up some of those areas where we can't park a vehicle but where a vehicle could still get through. So we think it has some added benefit that way. The system we scaled the trailer request based on the concept of being able to fully secure Houdini Plaza in a single run. So that is not going back and reloading with additional barriers to complete that project and that's how we arrived at the number of trailers that are being recommended.

Total purchase cost is as shown as a not to exceed of $1,275,000 and of the recommended source for that funding would be American Rescue Plan Act interest funds. So when the city of Appleton received the American Rescue Plan Act funds in two tranches, that money was placed in interest bearing accounts. And over time significant interest accrued on that $14,000,000 or so of American Rescue Plan Act funds that came in. The ARPA interest is not subject to the same requirements as American Rescue Plan Act funds that is it's generally unrestricted cash that's available for use. We'd originally set that money aside.

Council had set that money aside for contingency funding for outstanding ARPA projects. However, given the need to shore up continue to shore up our support of public events and make sure we're providing for public safety. My recommendation is to use that unrestricted cash to get this purchase moving quicker rather than waiting for another budget cycle attempting to secure congressionally directed funding or otherwise. If we do use the ARPA interest accruals there will still be approximately $395,000 remaining in that fund in ARPA interest accruals that can continue to serve as ARPA contingency as that program runs out through the end of this current fiscal year. So that's the high level of our recommendation.

And I have with me Sergeant Bees from the Eppleton Police Department who's been instrumental in preparing this recommendation and is familiar with these systems and we'd be happy to take any questions that you have.

All right. I see Alder Fenton, and we'll go from there.

All right. Thank you, Chair. I wish we weren't having to discuss this, but as someone who watches the news, I understand why we are. My question is pretty simple for Sergeant Vease or whoever. I know in a lot of cases we've rented the barricades that we currently use from an outside source. Any issues with the storage of now that we're acquiring a whole lot

of permanent equipment that we will own? So I think the rented barricades you're referring to are provided by a third party, and those are big barricades that we see out at events. In consultation with our traffic engineer, it seems we'll still need to rely on some of those barricades just to make street closures very clear to motorists. The signed packages that Meridian has available that attach to their barrier system we believe are undersized for our needs. So we would still largely rely on those third party barricades.

In terms of storage logistics and all of the details pertaining to how we will operationalize these barriers, what will happen is if the council approves acquisition of the barriers we will place a purchase order and in the time between placing the purchase order and receiving the barriers which Meridian is currently estimating about a thirty day window to get those barriers out here to us from California. We will put together provisional operational plans which will include details such as storage and ongoing maintenance. We also need to derive a unit price for the use of the barriers so that when we're putting together event agreements we've got a unit cost that we can draw from. So a number of details that need to be sorted out. Our internal team is already starting to work on this in anticipation, but we'll formalize that effort with an internal task force if the purchase is approved.

Thank you.

Anyone else? Alder Hartzey.

Thank you, Chair. May I address the mayor? Mayor or Director Messerschmidt, I'm not sure which of you would have the answer to this question, but you mentioned, Mayor, that these funds were there as a contingency for ARPA projects. Do we anticipate that there will be a problem significantly drawing on that fund just based on what ARPA projects still remain available?

At this time, we've received no indication that any of the outstanding ARPA projects are in immediate need of additional funds, contingency funds. However, I do believe it's prudent to maintain a balance in these ARPA interest funds while that program runs its course just in case something does come up. Additionally, if there are any unanticipated compliance costs, which we've run into along the way with American Rescue Plan Act funds, it will be helpful to have some money in reserve. But at this point, nothing to suggest that drawing this down by, call it, dollars 1,300,000.0 is going to adversely impact the outstanding American Rescue Plan Act fund projects.

Thank you. And two questions that kind of came from my constituency when I mentioned this on my blog was, why is what we're currently doing without these barriers not acceptable? And you answered most of those questions in your initial discussion. I don't know if you wanted to add anything more. And then the other piece was, could non ARPA funds, non ARPA interest funds, be solicited from events organizers for the acquisition of these things. And you made note of that now as well. I think it would be prudent for us to explain that some of these costs are now being passed on in these special events

applications. I'll address your question about soliciting other funds or other means of funding this. But then I'll hand it over to Sergeant Bees just to talk about the meridian barrier technology because there are some meaningful differences between using a vehicle or a truck for a hard barricade versus this system that we're recommending. But first with respect to raising funds or looking for other sources, timeliness is a concern as we head into the event season for the summer. And my concern would be that if we attempted to secure funding through another means at this point, when we've already done that a couple of times trying to find other ways to fund this, we may miss the event window for this coming summer.

And we would like to get these barriers ready to go and in place as soon as we can. So it's a great idea. We have a very generous community, and they contribute in so many ways. This is one where time is a factor as we head into the summer event season. And I'd be concerned about extending that timeline too deeply into the summer. But I want to hand it off, if I may, Chair, to Sergeant Bees just to talk about the Meridian system and how it differs from using vehicles.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. So I'd opt not to respectfully highlight security vulnerabilities in public forum. However, the Meridian system is purpose built for this design with DoD and DHS certifications certified and tested. One of the things that makes these systems appropriate for our use is the ability to use just a single barrier or an infinite amount of them in a row with additional options as far as tethering and such depending on the application.

Also, one of the benefits to a Meridian barricade and one of the reasons that this system seems most appropriate in my eyes is the spacing of the barricades allows for ingress and egress, particularly egress in an emergency where vehicles and some of the other systems out there basically provide blocks allowing people to or not allowing people to escape easily.

Thank you. And then mayor, were you going to touch then on recouping some of the costs of these as well?

Yeah. Also, I just want to mention that one of the facets I think is important as we consider the system is when we place a piece of city equipment or a volunteer vehicle in a position to be a hard barricade, it puts that piece of equipment at risk. And if and some of the equipment that we place is fairly specialized and turnaround times for replacement of that equipment can be fairly extended. So there could be service impacts if we lose a vehicle that way. Lose a vehicle for a worthy cause if we're protecting a crowd.

But I think it's a risk factor for us when we deploy equipment that way. Same for the vehicles that are privately owned and being used this way. The other thing is, while we often think about vulnerabilities to crowds as strictly about attacks, intentional acts. There are numerous examples of truly accidents that occur oftentimes where someone is having a medical issue and they lose control of their vehicle. The meridian barrier systems are designed to be non lethal for stopping vehicles.

So the barrier, if properly deployed, is designed to stop the vehicle, really lift the front end of the vehicle up with with while minimizing harm to the occupants of that vehicle. Because there are instances where someone is having a medical issue and if they if they run into the side of a dump truck the outcome may be very different. So just another feature of these barriers. In terms of cost recovery for these barriers, yes we do have the special event policy and when we deploy equipment like this, there is a chargeback per policy. I don't want to give the committee the impression that our rate of chargeback is going to demonstrate a sort of break even point in any near term time horizon.

However, worth noting that the units themselves are made of steel and carry a lifetime warranty. The units themselves will last a very long time depending on the nature of how they get used. They are called into service for their intended purpose, Meridian represents that many times even the barriers that are struck can be put back into service. So if we want to look on an extremely long time horizon, at some point, maybe through chargebacks, we'll get back to some kind of equilibrium point. But I don't want to represent that to the committee. But we do intend to include this in chargebacks when we deploy these systems.

Thank you. Thank you. Alder Benziela.

Thank you, Chair. I understand that with using volunteer vehicles, we've had some problems with finding the owners of those vehicles where we really need to move them and get them out of the way. Do we have any concerns? Is there special equipment that need to move these types of barriers? If they need to be moved, can they be moved easily?

Yeah included in your materials are some exhibits just showing you pictures of what these barriers look like. Each unit weighs about 700 pounds but as you can see they have wheels attached to them. The dolly system we will we will purchase the dolly system and have sufficient number to move barriers. It's called the Archer hauler so that's included in your exhibits And that is purpose built to move the barriers. On the other hand, with the built in wheels in a pinch, the barriers can be

So they can move pivoted up and moved.

Okay. Yeah.

I'm having trouble, I think, reconciling what I see here with such a powerful piece of equipment but that that's excellent to hear. Thank you.

And I couldn't upload videos to your your packet but there there are some demonstration videos online for meridian barricades that show you how they work. It's kind of an interesting exercise in physics. But they've proven very effective based on their certifications. All right.

Thank you. Anyone else? Oh, Alder Schulz, microphone number, please. 11.

Can I direct your question to the mayor? Yes. Yeah, I'm also trying to get a sense of deployment and versatility of the units. And I just got some of that with the weight of each of these pieces, which seems pretty substantial, which I guess means that once they're placed, they won't be moved without a dolly. And I guess I'm thinking about the occasions that you mentioned the farmers market being one of those events where we want to put these in place.

And if they're at every intersection, I think about those vehicles that end up moving barricades to get out of essentially off of College Avenue shortly after the farmers market is over. And most of that most of those are being moved by vendors like, Okay, it's time to move. They slip the barrier aside. They move their vehicles out. I would want to be sure that I mean I don't know what the planning is here with, for these are deployed at every intersection that seems problematic.

Like now everyone's boxed in until the Dolly gets there to move these because they're significant. I guess I'm wondering what is the, as you're thinking about it and I'm sure you are, what's the deployment plan? Are we thinking to think about every other intersection then so that we're leaving? Because I see one gate, the two gates included in the purchase, but that's it. All the rest of them are these solid units that are going to be placed at every intersection.

So that feels a little problematic. I wonder if we don't hopefully we may need some more gates in the future or if there's a plan to not deploy them at any intersection. I guess that's my concern is a little bit about usability. I appreciate what they're going to do, and that's an exceptional plan to protect our pedestrians, especially along College and Oktoberfest and other events like that. But I would want to make sure that we have a pretty good idea about traffic flow before and after events and allowing vendors for one to move out of a space and not have to wait for half an hour for the Dolly arrive to get out of College Avenue.

I appreciate the feedback. And as with anything new, we'll work with the event organizers, not only for the farmers market but for other events to work through event logistics. We are recommending with this purchase that we would have two gate systems. One the beam gate and you might have seen that in action at Mile of Music a couple of years ago. We tested that piece of equipment but also a rapid gate.

The gates are fairly costly so we're trying to be mindful of expenses. We put this together but we'll work with organizers to come up with plans so that the logistics are as smooth as they can be. Our priority is creating a secure perimeter for events. And so that may change the level of convenience for some event participants. We'll do our best to mitigate that.

But at the end of the day, priority is to make sure that when people come out to our events, they can do so with confidence. And so we will do our best. But I I also don't expect that we're going be waiting around half an hour for someone to come move them if that's part of the event plan making sure that we have personnel on-site. That's the other thing I think worth noting here is that with with fairly minimal training these these can be operated by city employees across multiple departments. The the hauler system itself is is little more than a dolly So it's not a situation where we have to use heavy equipment.

Like if we were going to place jersey barriers, for example, that are made of solid concrete, you need a loader for that and chains and the right certifications. And these systems are much easier to move. And with just a little bit of training, we can make sure we'll have people out where we need them.

Thank you. Alder Krott.

Thank you, chair. If I may ask the mayor a question. A couple of my questions have been answered. One was the, the life of these units and how long they'll last. Sounds like they'll last a long time. They're made out of heavy steel. We heard about lifetime warranty. That's great. The question that I had was and I know we're looking at purchasing these and getting them in time for some events this year. Was there any consideration for looking at a regional approach to purchasing these or is there an opportunity for Appleton to quote unquote rent these out to other municipalities, say for example, Grand Shooter, Outagamie County or anybody around us?

Great question. There are a number of communities in the Fox Cities that already have meridian barriers and that's really the basis for this recommendation being a sole source. It's one of the reasons we're bringing it as a sole source recommendation. In terms of regional agreements to work together, to my knowledge that has not been created yet. However, it'd be my intention if Appleton acquires the system to organize an effort among communities that have these these barriers so that we have a a sort of standing agreement among us about how sharing can work to make sure that that's done equitably and that risk is appropriately managed for the city of Appleton and for other participants.

But but I would I would envision some sort of MOU whether with multiple communities or with with those who are willing to participate because there are times where we may need more. There are times where our neighbors may need more. And if it works out we can partner, that means we don't have to scale our systems to meet our highest need at any given time if we can share among our community. So I appreciate the regional thinking. I'm right there with you on that. I don't see an opportunity with respect to purchasing because other communities already have them. But I do think there's opportunity to clarify how we can share and work together.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Is there anyone else? All right. I'm seeing none. I would definitely urge us to support this. I think the value of a system like this is you get to preserve the events in our community. You get to do it in a way where we have the highest potential for preserving life, not just for the attendance of these events, but as stated before, accidents. This is the kind of system that really only has to work once to pay for itself. So I think this is a good idea to proceed with this. With that, we'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Extensions? That passes five-zero.

Next up, twenty six-four thirty seven, request to approve the Fox City's Exhibition Center MOU between City and Driftwood Hospitality.

Move to approve. Second.

So we'll pass the mic down, it looks like. And Director Holman?

Director Tuohy.

Yep. Go ahead when you're ready.

All right. So we are really pleased that we're bringing this before you. If you recall, the last major activity we had with regards to the management agreement was the extension of the existing agreement, which we brought into effect just after the holidays, right after Christmas and New Year's. What you have before you is a framework for which we would negotiate the new replacement agreement. Some of the major changes compared to the old agreement is it's really taking a market and incentive based approach to really incentivize and drive revenue for the operator.

This recommendation to move towards that model was made made by CSL, our management consultant, which specializes in consulting for exhibition centers nationwide. In particular, the model that we've pursued is unique and recommended for exhibition centers that are operated by an adjacent hotel versus those that are operated by a contractor or standalone entity or by municipality. A few other highlights that I included in my memo was the operator, in this case, Driftwood Hospitality, will continue to hold all of the risk for operating. So they'll see the benefit of the upside. But in years where there might be losses, they would also assume the losses.

Some changes that we made to remove some of the constraints and impediments for driving revenue is we are eliminating the payment in lieu of taxes that had been in prior agreements and also eliminating proposing to eliminate the free day requirements for our partner municipalities. However, we have made it clear that we expect there to be provisions in the new management agreement related to discount days or the ability to have preference and scheduling. Revenue sharing is a huge piece that we knew was important. As the owner of the building, it's incredibly important for us to think long term about how we're going to maintain the asset. So what we have put into here is a graduated revenue share.

So we're starting out at 1%. And then by the end of the first term, we'll be getting 6% of revenues. And this is gross revenues, not profit,

with

the intention that all revenues passed to the city would be placed in a capital reserve account and set aside just for that purpose. On the topic of capital reserves, the structure that we have conceived is that any capital expenses exceeding $10,000 would be the responsibility of the city. So the importance of that revenue sharing and then graduating it over time is important. So the memorandum of understanding in your packet has already been signed by the Driftwood representatives. We are already working with our legal services department as well as our consultant to start drafting the new agreement.

However, we need to make sure that MOU gets approved. The terms of it have it going through June 1. And it's our intention to work with with due diligence to make sure we get that new agreement drafted in alignment with this MOU if it's the will of the committee and council to approve it.

All right. Thank you. Are there any questions? All are our time.

Thank you, Chair. I have three questions that I'm not certain who might be able to answer them. First, if there's an elimination of pilots, explain to me the logistics of what occurs as far as tax income then for the city.

We would collect $25,000 less.

Excellent. Thank you. That's a wonderful answer. Thank you. I mean, I'm not thrilled by that, but I'm just saying it was a straightforward answer, so I appreciate that. Second, if Driftwood is no longer then, at some point along the line, going to be managing the Hilton Paper Valley, what happens to this agreement, or what happens with FCEC?

It would be our intention to have successors in a science language in the final agreement. Attorney Barron's, if there's anything to add.

Thank you. And then the last thing I noted that there is some potential now for sponsorships. Does anyone feel like there might be some issues somewhere along the line as far as naming sponsorships, etcetera? I know I noticed that you are hopeful to have this be sort of council approved or somehow approved within the city structure. Any issues you see with any of that?

There's no known issues that we're aware of at present. However, we wanted to anticipate that it would be important that whatever naming rights were sold were agreeable also to the city as it is reflecting on us. So that's just buying us some additional insurance.

Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Seeing none, we'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? That passes five-zero. We do have a closed session on here, but that was for the previous item, so I do not believe we need to go into closed session. We have no information items.

Move to adjourn. Second.

All right. Have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? We are adjourned.