On 09/15/2021 the Appleton Common Council took up Resolution #13-R-21 “Support for Resettlement of Afghanistan Parolees in Appleton”. The discussion revolved around two main issues (1) what, if any call to action did the resolution have, and (2) a more philosophical debate about the value, purpose, and need for the Common Council to put forth resolutions that address social issues.
During the Community and Economic Development Committee meeting where this resolution was initially discussed and eventually recommended for approval, it seemed to me that it was fairly well established that that resolution wasn’t going to result in any changes to what the City of Appleton organizations was already doing in response to the refugees. During the Common Council meeting Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) did offer up an amendment to the resolution with the aim of addressing the concern that the resolution had no “call to action” as it were. Some alderpersons felt the amendment didn’t result in any substantive changes, but others thought it was an improvement. The public can decide for themselves what they think.
Because of the somewhat philosophical nature of parts of the discussion and the fact that I don’t want to inadvertently or unfairly cut out any nuance to any particular alderperson’s position, I’m going to be doing a lot of verbatim quoting instead of summarizing.
Prior to the Council debate, two members of the public did speak on this resolution. Tammy McLaughlin of World Relief made a statement similar to the one she made at the Community and Economic Development Committee meeting.
An Appleton resident named Jeffrey also spoke. He had just found out earlier that day that Appleton was going to be taking in 100 Afghan parolees. He was concerned because Afghanistan is a hot bed of international terrorism. The vetting process for special immigrant visas usually take years, but we do not know who these parolees are. He heard comments about the state having biometric data on these people and that Homeland security was vouching for the parolees, but he pointed out that the reason they are designated parolees was as a work around for the special immigrant visa process which vets people very clearly who are going to be resettled in the U.S. He wasn’t against Afghan people and stressed that his views had nothing to do with prejudice and were instead based on concern for the safety of the community. He wanted to know whether or not the people coming were property vetted and were not going to turn out to be potential terrorists.
When the Council took up discussion on the matter Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) kicked things off. He highlighted that people were coming with just the clothes on their backs and that they would have been killed if they stayed. He thought it was very important to discuss this and do everything that they could to help. He agreed with a suggestion that Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) had discussed with him that the Council should have a discussion later with organizations, churches, and other organizations in the area that are helping the parolees to get feedback on what they need to see if the city could help more. He fully supported the resolution.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) then started the philosophical discussion of the evening. “I fully support the resettlement of Afghan refugees in the city of Appleton, and I want that to be clear. I have an issue with this resolution for two reasons. One, it is my perspective that a resolution should call to action. Now I understand that that’s not everyone’s thought process, but when we were in the Community and Economic Development committee meeting and discussed this, Alderperson Alfheim asked Director Harkness if anything would be done differently with or without this resolution and she essentially stated, I believe, that nothing would be done differently, and that the city is already proactively taking this issue on and assisting in any way possible. So, to me there’s that first issue that there isn’t action to be taken by this body.
“But, secondarily and very deeply, there is fundamental philosophical disagreement amongst members of this body. A faction of us believes that using this body to address social issues is very important and they want to speak to those issues, and I appreciate that we spoke to those issues, and I mentioned that at well in the CEDC committee meeting, but just as all of us in the City of Appleton don’t agree on everything, all the members of this body don’t necessarily agree on everything, so these social issue agenda items put us at this conundrum that we as a body–that just breaks up we as a body. Just puts a divide between us. And that feels like a fundamental issue that we as a body have to work on. And then the other faction of us believe that this body is for the business of the city and that’s what resolutions are for.
“So, again, I thoroughly agree that we should talk about these things; I thoroughly advocate for the re–for assistance from all of the city of Appleton to resettle these Afghan refugees. But I believe that I will not be voting in favor of this resolution for those reasons. Again, not because the resolution has a bad topic, and not because I disagree with the topic, but because I believe that this sort of thing, again, breaks us up as a group, as a group–and we were arm and arm on 9/11 walking through the street. And I want us to feel that way always, and these things push a divide between us and I feel that it’s important for us to address that as a group and try to move forward from that. So, thank you.”
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9), the main author of the resolution, said, “I guess I’m personally hard pressed to see this as a social issue. This is a call for support to individuals who were potentially threatened with execution is they stayed in the country and were put in that position by the actions of our U.S. government, I think it’s a little bit of a stretch to call it a social issue and pin point it as something that is just a feel-good thing. The city is actively involved in resettling in some way helping and looking for opportunities and communicating with World Relief, and I want to thank Tammy for her eloquent summary of the program and what we’re being asked to do to resettle these 100 refugees. I did have some conversations with one of my colleagues who was a cosigner who had some suggested revisions, so I’m hoping to hear those soon and I think it may alleviate some of the concerns from my other colleagues who don’t like some of the language in the resolution. So, that’s all I have for the moment.”
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) said, “My feeling on the–this resolution is first of all absolutely the city departments were already doing the planning for this. I met with Director Harkness before–the day we introduced the resolution to find out what the planning was and was very pleased to find out that no fewer than five city departments were already represented on the joint resettlement commission.
“So, in my mind, the Common Council can sometimes enact a resolution to further the mission of our city, meeting the needs of our community, enhancing the quality of life, and part of the needs of our community are to ensure our reputation as a community that is welcoming to people, and to people in need, and that reaches out to people in need, and enhances their quality of life. And the fact that we were already working on this, I don’t think eliminates the need or the desire for the Common Council to make this the official position of the Council and thereby the city on this issue.
“I don’t particularly agree with saying that these are social issues. It’s not a nuanced thing, just as my colleague Alderperson Schultz said, these people’s lives were in danger. To me it’s not a social issue to do the right thing. And I am interested to see what my other colleague brings forward but I full intend to support this and I intend to personally and with whatever city resources I can muster to help World Relieve Fox Valley in their effort to help these folks. Thank you.”
Alderperson Maiyoua Thao (District 7) said, “I would like to ask my colleagues to support this resolution. One of the things that I want us to understand is that refugees or parolees cannot return back to their homeland because of war and persecution with the ties to the Americans. We may see and think that we always, or there are some issues that came up in this council with social issues, but our community looked up to us as leaders. They are taxpayers and I just wanted to suggest that where would they go for help, where would they go on justice issues too if–when there are issues that’s happening in the community? We’ve got police [that] handles police issues. We got Park and Rec [that] handles Park and Rec issues. We got the Community and Economic Development in terms of business and economic development in our cities. We got each department that handles every department or every situation in this community.
“So, I feel that the things that we’re doing here is very important, that’s happening in our community. It’s not one little single thing that we have to separate out because these are the people that are living in our community that need us as leaders that they look up to. To understand and to know what’s happening within our cities, so I would encourage our council members, my colleagues to vote to support this resolution.
“And one last thing that I wanted to mention is that I had always mentioned this, myself as a refugee. Before coming to America, we had to go through a lot of process a lot of questioning, a lot of steps to be here so I’m sure that our homeland security are doing their job to make sure that every refugee parolees that we’re bringing here will be safe in our community. Thank you.”
Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) said, “Well, once again we have one of these feel-good resolutions but surprisingly, I’m going to support it tonight without referring it back.” [This was a reference to the AAPI resolution from earlier this year.] “What really troubles me with these kind of resolutions is it puts zero responsibility on our shoulders as a council. We say this department or this agency you do it, and we walk away. No responsibility. I mentioned to Alderperson Wolff tonight what I’d like to see happen in terms of putting responsibility on our shoulders in the second ‘Further Resolved’ it says ‘offer any additional assistance it can to facilitate rapid response.’ I have absolutely no idea what the hell that means. Absolutely none, and so I would hope that the Economic Development Committee Chair would at some point in the very near future, once we start resettling these individuals that we have an information hearing to see how thing are going to see what needs there are and so then maybe we can start addressing those needs. You know, when you say ‘additional assistance’ please keep in mind that might have dollar signs to it. So, like I said, I hope that we can have an informational hearing down the road once the resettlement starts taking place. Thank you very much.”
Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) said, “I have a number of things to bring up here, but I’d like to start with encouraging all of my colleagues to support this resolution. I want first to speak to the points that Alderperson Hartzheim brought up. I believe there is a call to action in this resolution. I will in a moment here be offering an amendment that I think provides a lot of needed clarity. We had a really good discussion about this resolution at the committee and Alderperson Hartzheim has brought up this philosophical disagreement about addressing social issues. As committee, there was–there were comments about how there was a desire for this to be presented as a proclamation rather than a resolution. I’d like to take this time to go over some of the basic–basic information about how Council works. The proclamation…”
Mayor Woodford interrupted with a reminder to keep comments germane to the debate and then let Alderperson Metzler continue after being told that the statements were relevant.
Alderperson Meltzer continue, “A proclamation is the vehicle of the mayor’s voice. When the mayor makes a proclamation, his name is on it, his seal is on it. The vehicle for our voice on Council is the resolution. Any one of us individually or all together could ask the mayor to make a proclamation, but when we propose a resolution and vote on it and go on record as to whether we voted yea or voted nay, that is our vehicle for our voice, and it is our job to use that tool as Alderpersons.
“So, when resolutions are introduced and one of the primary objections is ‘I don’t this should have been brought forward as a resolution.’ I think that that is–that is an attempt to skirt the issue. That is an excuse and it’s a bad excuse and I really–as far as philosophical divides and putting divides between ourselves, I have been sitting in this seat for seven years and we have been completely at odds and full of disagreement about issue over issue, yet we have still been able to send each other birthday cards, support each other when we’re not feeling well, make Christmas cookies for each other, have a sense of unity, have a sense of family, so I believe that if we cannot have a unanimous vote on every resolution that is not truncating our sense of unity or our ability to be arm and arm. That is just the fact that, as Alderperson Hartzheim said, people in the city don’t agree about everything. Our constituents don’t agree about everything. If our goal here was to get a unanimous vote on every single resolution, that would not be democracy. So, I have a proposal for some amendments to the second part of the ‘Be It Further Resolved’. I think it’s very important to acknowledge the hard work that the Community and Economic Development is doing and I do think that the word ‘direct’ in this resolution is inappropriate, so I have three parts to my amendment. My first part is…”
Mayor Woodford interrupted again and asked for the amendment to be stated as a motion.
Alderperson Meltzer made a motion to amend the final paragraph of the resolution. The original paragraph read:
“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Common Council of Appleton directs the department of Community and Economic Development to coordinate any necessary response with county, state, and federal government departments and agencies, in accordance with previously established and proven best practices for emergency resettlement, as well as offer any additional assistance it can to facilitate rapid response housing options within the City of Appleton.”
The amended version read:
“Be It Further Resolved that the Common Council of Appleton supports the department of Community & Economic Development with facilitating and coordinating necessary response with county, state, and federal government departments and agencies, in accordance with previously established and proven best practices for emergency resettlement, with a focus on rapid response housing options within the City of Appleton.”
Alderperson Meltzer stated, “This calls attention to the actual call for action component of the resolution. It puts the responsibility on our shoulders to support the work that our department is already doing. I believe that takes care of what were brought up as what I saw as the key issues. I encourage you all to support my amendment. Thank you.”
Multiple alderpersons seconded this amendment, and Alderperson Wolff ended up being credited in the minutes.
Alderperson Kristin Alfheim (District 11) appreciated the amendment. She had participated in the committee conversation about the item and had been one of the people who questioned whether a resolution was the right tool or not. After a great discussion inside the committee, they had another discussion outside. They talked about opposition not being against the thought of the resolution but just the wording of it. She loved the changed “because in this resolution we are not asking the city to really do anything other than what they had already started doing, but we are saying out loud to our new residents, our new family member ‘we believe in this’ and we support this effort.'”
She then told a story about how she had recently been in the Tampa, FL airport and there was a middle eastern couple there standing at the gate. They clearly spoke no English and the gate representative was giving them zero time. As Alderperson Alfheim watched what was unfolding she turned to the woman and opened her arms to invite her to come and see if she could help them. She thought it was in people’s nature to want to help and do the right thing. “I think we can have a discussion about whether we should be bringing resolutions or not, but it should never be questioned whether we are trying to do good. We all are. I have said from the beginning on this resolution I would not vote against it in any way, whether I thought it should be brought up or not. I will support it with much more vigor with the changes that Alder Meltzer has brought to the table because it shows support for what the city already has the capability of doing and I love the idea that Alder Siebers brought up about now following up, and if it does come to where we need to say ‘can we do more?’ we can then talk about it. But I think that combination now brings it up as a proper piece to vote on and I support it fully.”
Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15), “I guess to the amendment itself, in my mind, I’m not sure that it really changes much in the resolution from that standpoint really. I guess my–I’ve said before, my kind of frustration with resolutions like this is that we put a lot of effort into making statements and we–it makes us feel good but I think we lose sight of the fact that every time we put a resolution in it becomes a discussion point for staff. And I can tell you from my experience with the city staff, some resolutions require more action from staff than others, but as authors of this resolution have stated, there is no action in this resolution. But we’re still requiring staff time for them to discuss it. Maybe this falls on the lower end of discussion. But this is what frustrates me about making these statements of support is we’re taking staff away from other time and other duties that we and our tax payers expect them to be working on.” [Note: Alderperson Doran used to be the city’s Communication Coordinator, which is where is perspective on staff impact comes from.]
He continued, “And if this is just a statement of support, I’m disappointed that the authors didn’t also include support or any concern for the Americans or other Afghans who are still stuck in Afghanistan that are trying to get out. They’re in danger as well. We talk about how the people who have made it here are in danger.”
Someone said something off mic to which Mayor Woodford responded, “I’ll manage the discussion, thank you.”
The mayor did not seem to think Alderperson Doran was out of line and did not take any steps to stop or direct him.
Alderperson Doran continued, “We talk about how the refugees who are here now felt like they were in danger but there’s been no concern shown for those who are still there, and I think my bigger, broader point is somewhat to Alderperson Siebers point before: if we’re truly looking to help these people and we can and we should, a resolution as a statement of support really doesn’t do anything for them. I doubt that this reaches any of them in any way. But if we really want to help them, then I challenge the authors to find some funding in the budget and bring forward a resolution to offer them some real support, some meaningful support that they could use to help them with housing, help them with food, help them find jobs. Help them with transportation. That’s a way that we can really support these people, and if that’s our goal as Alder Siebers made the point, then that’s what we should be doing. Alders–other authors stated there at the CEDC meeting there’s no action in this resolution and that staff is already doing all the work that would be done with this resolution So let’s put some actual action into it. Thank you.”
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) said, “I’ve heard a few times the phrase ‘feel good’. This is a ‘feel good resolution’, and I think that that’s a very me-centric way of looking at this which is not typically how we want to look at things that we’re doing for the city. One of the pluses that we have in this situation now is that we have history to look back on. We’ve done this before. We’ve taken in the Hmong community in a similar situation as the Afghan community, and we all acknowledge that there are things we could have done better.
“So, in my discussion about this resolution my concern was to get the feedback of people who are of the community who have been in the position of these people before. You know, they’ve been refugees and parolees and an overwhelming majority said that this is important, that this is something they would have wanted to see when they were coming here–to see the city say ‘welcome’, and I think that that’s what we need to be looking at. We need to let the people who’ve been here before lead the discussion so that we don’t make mistakes for the people who are coming in. Thank you.”
Mayor Woodford took a moment to remind everyone where they were in the discussion. He said it was a little bit tricky because they were talking about the Be It Further Resolved clause which was the heart of the resolution. He said clearly that the discussion had been germane up to that point. But they had not yet resolved the motion to amend. He then let the discussion continue.
Alderperson Fenton thanked Alderperson Meltzer for making this amendment. “I think making this wording really say what we want this resolution to say…. We already know that staff is already hard at work on this in many, many departments and I think changing this language to ‘we want to support them and facilitate’ those are words that indicate what we want to do. So, I am fully in support of this amendment and clearly the resolution as a whole.”
Alderperson Schultz also thanked Alderperson Meltzer for the amendment. “As a little bit of history, this was drafted with some necessary speed because the announcement was coming two weeks ago when it was to be read in and two days later the announcement on the hundred refugees coming in so for the authors and myself who drafted this, there wasn’t a lot of time to go back and forth between us and sort of clean it up, so I take responsibility for maybe some of the language that was–could have been better and is now much improved. So, I thank my colleague for making those clarifications.
“And I would just say that our ability to make a statement to the community serves a couple of purposes, one of which was called out which shows the incoming refugees/parolees that we support them and are doing our best to help them resettle in a far foreign country and foreign climate with foreign language, hopefully some of them have some functional English to help them get by.
“The second thing it does is calls out to the non-profits, the NGOs, and anybody else in the community and just makes them aware that we are supportive of this, but we have a need and that need which was communicated to me from World Relief is that one of the biggest needs is to find housing, and so in my mind when I drafted this, the intend of the resolution was to say ‘this is a need that we have; our duty as council members is to make notice to the community that we’re aware of this, that these refugees are coming is, but we need some support.
“And even if the support has already been given by city staff and the support is coming from the World Relief Fox Valley and other organizations that are tasked with this, more support needs to come from the community and one of the things that we can do here is make a public statement and let the community know that we need their support. That’s really the heart of this, that’s the meat of this, that’s the call to action if you want to chase a call to action. Thank you.”
Alderperson Wolff asked to call the question. [Thank, God. The discussion was getting long. He calls the question more frequently than any other alderperson. We can pretty much keep him on the Council for that reason alone.]
The amendment was approved 12-1 with Alderperson Doran voting nay and Alderpersons Matt Reed (District 8) and Michael Smith (District 10) both being excused.
They then moved back to discussion the full resolution as amended.
Alderperson Harzheim wanted to address some of her colleagues’ earlier statements. Mayor Woodford asked her to address the chair.
Alderperson Hartzheim said, “Yes, absolutely. I would like to address their comments, to you. Alderperson Thao mentioned that we can show–by doing this we can be leaders, and I believe that that is an absolutely true statement and I believe that we can do that individually as leaders in our community. I believe that that is the important part of what she stated. Also, Alderperson Van Zeeland mentioned that we should be a welcoming community and there are two ways also besides this resolution that that can be done–the mayor’s resolution, err the mayor’s proclamation section where we could request that of the mayor, and individually we can be very welcoming and be a welcoming city. So, I want to make the point that without this resolution we still can do those things and I still very much feel that way. Thank you.”
Alderperson Thao said, “I just wanted to add that I know that there are–there may be times that our resolution doesn’t have a strong ‘To Be Resolved” to it, but I think that a resolution like this we can do a lot of things too. Even though many of us support it and some may not support it. But we can always volunteer. We can always support by donating or also listen to the sessions that World Relief has, and these are the things that we can do even though we feel that this resolution is not strong enough we can go on other ways to be a volunteer and find ways how we can help too, so I just wanted to add that to it. Thank you.”
Alderperson Meltzer said, “I believe that this resolution has a strong call to action. I believe that this resolution–I believe that this resolution is worthy of all of my colleagues’ support. One of the questions we should be asking ourselves–I mean everyone should be asking themselves, what can they do individually. But we sit here in these seats. We were chosen and appointed by our constituents. What can we do that they cannot? What mechanism, what tools do we have at our disposal that we can use for the common good, for community good, for community issues when we learn that in the midst of a crisis 100 individuals in a terrible situation are coming to us where we can help them and welcome them. What are we in this chamber able to do that those people who are not sitting in these seats can’t do? We can pass resolutions. We can make statements using the tools that are available to us and the tools that are appropriate.
“So, if we were not to have this resolution we would basically be saying, ‘Well, we heard the news but we don’t care about World Relief. Oh, we know CEDC–we know Karen Harkness’s department is working very hard but we don’t feel the need to say anything about it.’ Instead, we have this resolution so that we can say these things because it’s very important to say these things because that’s leadership and it’s not just these 100 parolees who have not arrived yet that we are speaking to. We are speaking to all the people already here in our community who have shown their outpouring of support to World Relief with donations and with their interest in volunteering. Our constituent who asks us what are we doing about these issues that are coming right here to our community–this is what we can do. Please support this resolution. Thank you.”
Alderperson Harzheim said, “I would just like to say that everything that Alderperson Meltzer said that we can do, we can also do individually. Thank you.”
Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3) said, “We can take action in support as a group, and I think that shows much more strength, much more leadership than doing that as individuals. I think it means more coming from us as a body even if we don’t vote unanimously. I still think it sends a much louder message than all of us as individuals can in this community. You know, we can send a message of support. We could send a message of disapproval if we really wanted to. Or we could just stay quiet on all of this, but that silence is a vacuum that people will fill. And while we do have a community filled with a lot of good people who are going to do a lot of good things and be helpful about this, and this isn’t about just whether you agree or disagree with this resolution, but there are also people in this community that, in that vacuum, are going to be less than welcoming, and I’ll just leave it at that.”
Alderperson Wolff said, “I mean, yes, we’re doing this as a group and we’re putting this resolution out as a group, and whether or not you really want this–support it as a resolution I would still hope that you would still go out and use your resources. People that you know, to do that. And I think that we are doing it as a group, but we’re also doing it individually. and bringing more resources together. And I have 100% confidence that there are definitely people in this room, who I won’t mention, that–who have been through something similar and I know that their community and the people that they know will make sure that these people are able to find everything that they need to survive in this country and in this state. Because it gets cold here, and I don’t think they’re ready for that.”
Alderperson Doran said, “I think we’ve all made statements of support tonight which, if my understanding is correct, accomplishes the goal of this resolution which I think makes the resolution kind of unnecessary. There are lots of ways we can make statements of support, guys. But I think if we’re asking these people when they come here what they need I think some actual assistance from the city in terms of funding, whether that’s directly to these people or to some of the organizations like World Relief that will help these people, will be much more appreciated by them as they struggle to get settled here than a statement of support that we have all made tonight.”
Alderperson Prohaska asked to call the question. The resolution was approved 11-2 with Alderpersons Hartzheim and Doran voting nay and Alderpersons Reed and Smith having been excused.
[For the most part, I thought everyone made good and reasonable points. The only thing I really disagreed with was the idea that not having this resolution would basically be saying, “Well, we heard the news but we don’t care about World Relief. Oh, we know CEDC–we know Karen Harkness’s department is working very hard but we don’t feel the need to say anything about it.” In most arguments, I find myself disagreeing with the contention that “if you don’t say [this] then you are saying [that], and, as usual, I disagree with it in this case. As a resident, I was happy to learn that various city departments were doing exactly what they were supposed to do in response to the announcement that refugees/parolees would be sent to the Fox Cities and that they didn’t need to have the Council direct them as to what to do. The public awareness of the resolution is an added benefit, but the genuinely important thing is that the city is doing what it needs to do to help get these refugees/parolees settled. I don’t think not passing a resolution when things are already moving correctly would in any way be akin to saying that “we don’t care about World Relief”. If things weren’t moving correctly and the Council still declined to act then that argument would hold water, but not when it’s been established that things are moving correctly.
I also though Alderperson Firkus’ hope that passing this resolution might help stave off people being less than welcoming seemed a little unlikely. I doubt people prone to that behavior are aware of what the Common Council does or care about it. Hopefully the refugees will have some supportive people who can help them report crimes to the police should something happen.]
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=884420&GUID=190AFC4D-5884-4ACF-B011-89788EDB42BD
Be the first to reply