The Municipal Services Committee met 10/11/2021. It was a short meeting, only around 11 minutes in length.
The action items were all straightforward and each was approved unanimously without discussion. Those items included…
- Request from Supreme Tattoo Society for a street occupancy permit to place a picnic table in the College Avenue beautification strip at 612 W. College Avenue.
- Request from Brian Hodgkiss Injury Lawyers to install signage on the College Avenue Skywalk. This request is consistent with the College Avenue Skywalk Agreement.
- Request from Greenfire for a street occupancy permit for their construction fencing and staging area to extend 30 feet into the Oneida Street right-of-way at 135 E. College Avenue from October 11, 2021 through March 1, 2022.
- Request from Blue Sky Contractors for a street occupancy permit for their crane to extend 2 feet into the alley behind 322 W. College Avenue from October 7, 2021 through July 1, 2022.
- Request from Grant Thompson Construction, Inc. for a street occupancy permit to place a dumpster in the Roosevelt Street right-of-way at 610 E. Roosevelt Street from August 6, 2021 through October 8, 2021.
- Request from Security Luebke Roofing for a street occupancy permit to place a small crane on the corner of Douglas Street and 4th Street from October 7, 2021 through October 31, 2021.
The information items took up more time and involved slightly more discussion.
The first information item was the Proposed Modification to the Department of Public Works Table of Organization-CEA and Parking Utility.
Director of Public Works Paula Vandehey reported that this would be an action item at the Human Resources and Information Technology Committee meeting. She said it was an example of how creative the city is going to have to be, moving forward, to try to fill positions. This was a part time CEA position that she believed the city was on their 4th or 5th time of trying to fill. They have been unsuccessful in filling it, and when they have hired someone that person does not stay very long. The idea behind the organizational change was to join two part-time positions into one fulltime benefited position. She thought it was a win/win for the city because hopefully the fact that it will be a fulltime benefited position will result in a better applicant pool and whoever they hire will stay for a longer period of time.
Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3) asked if this was going to be two completely different jobs that one person was doing or was there similarity in the duties.
Director Vandehey answered that there are some similarities but also some differences. The employee will spend part of their day the municipal services building and then part of their day downtown in the parking ramps.
The next information item was Inspection Division Permit Summary Comparison Report for September, 2021. Director Vandehey had nothing to add to the report and the committee members had no questions or comments.
The next information item was the BIRD e-scooter Report.
Director Vandehey did not review the report, which the committee members already had in front of them. She did want to highlight that there was a survey posted on the city’s website and on social media asking for feedback from the community about the BIRD scooter program. The city wanted to get as much survey feedback as possible prior to the November 8 Municipal Services Committee meeting. During the November 8 meeting the committee will be receiving the results of that survey and also a presentation from a BIRD representative. Ultimately, the committee and the Council will have to decide if the city is going to end their agreement with BIRD or if they want to continue with it. If the Council wants to move forward with BIRD, there will be a lot of things they have to work out with the attorney’s office, but they don’t want to start that process and workload unless the Council decides to move forward. The more feedback the city can get from the survey the better.
Alderperson Firkus thought that was a good idea. The reports give official numbers, but the official numbers didn’t necessarily reflect the anecdotal feedback alderpersons received.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) said that she had been receiving more inquiries from constituents since school started again regarding BIRDs being parked in odd places. The September report wouldn’t necessarily reflect that, but she wondered if there was more anecdotal evidence of issues of College Avenue.
Director Vandehey said she didn’t have any anecdotal evidence. If someone makes a complaint to her, she documents is. If Alderpersons are receiving complaints and not documenting them then she wouldn’t be able to put that into the report.
She said that if any of the alderpersons had specific questions that they would like the BIRD representative to respond to that they should submit them to her and she could pass it on to BIRD.
There were no more questions.
The moved on to the final information item which was the Parking Utility Revenue Report
Director Vandehey said this report was not as good as the inspections division report was. The Parking Utility is doing a little bit better revenue-wise in 2021 as compared to 2020, but it is not picking up as quickly as they were hoping. In 2022 they are again budgeting pretty conservatively. They’re hoping to see a rise in revenue, but it’s just not bouncing back as quickly as they had hoped.
Alderperson Firkus said he had been reviewing that section of the budget this weekend and could see they had definitely been a lot more optimistic 12 months ago about where they would be right now. Unfortunately, things hadn’t worked out that way.
The meeting then adjourned.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=897657&GUID=1258FB2C-09F3-4DE8-97B3-B2582A5CE6BC
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