The Municipal Services Committee met 03/21/2022. Although it was not the highlight of the meeting, they did take up the request from Brett on Marquette Street to appeal the $75 assessment he received after city staff salted his icy sidewalk.
Getting the committee and Council to waive an assessed fee for something like this is a difficult proposition, and the committee recently similarly denied an appeal of a tire removal assessment.
Alderperdon Brad Firkus (District 3) who was chairing the meeting started out by asking for a motion on the item. There was a noticeable pause in which none of the committee members said anything before Alderperson Firkus asked again, prompting Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) to make a motion to deny the waiver request.
Brett then spoke and pleaded his case. He said that his sidewalk was salted by the city and he was fired on a Tuesday. He and his wife had been out of town, having left on that Subdau. His mother had been watching their two kids.
After receiving the fine, he got in touch with Director of Publuc Works Paula Vandehey who sent him information on the city ordinance that required sidewalks to be cleared 36 hours after the last snowfall. He explained to the committee that there had been no snow on the ground that Monday because it had been 40 degreed. Everything melted and then froze Monday night. They were out of town and didn’t have a chance to salt the sidewalk. He was asking the committee to waive the fine.
Alderperson Firkus asked if city staff had anything to add, but they did not. Likewise, the committee members had no comments or questions, and, with no discussion, they voted unanimously to deny the appeal.
Alderperson Firkus told Brett that the committee had voted to recommend the appeal be denied, and the Common Council would hold a final vote on it on April 6th.
Brett asked what that meant and if it meant that he would have to pay the fine.
Alderperson Firkus explained that it it would go to the Common Council which would make a final decision on April 6 and added that typically the Council would not change something like this, but it was not impossible that it might be changed. In an effort to be clear, he stated that right now the committee was recommending that the fee stay.
Brett sounded quite disappointed and asked if he could asked why. He didn’t understand why he had to pay the fine.
Alderperson Firkus tried to gently explain to him that,, although he couldn’t speak for the other committee members, he himself had voted against the appeal because ebenthough Brett had been out of town and didn’t get a chance to salt the sidewalk, “We don’t make exceptions for–because plans and weather don’t always cooperate.”
Brett felt that didn’t make any sense because the sidewalk had been clear when all the snow had melted on Monday, but Alderperson Firkus would not let him continue talking, telling him that the committee had voted on it and reminding him he could come to the Common Council meeting on April 6th and make his case then.
[Honestly, it was a little sad to listen to, not because the committee or Alderperson Firkus did anything wrong–because they did not–but because Brett came off as a totally regular guy who had no awareness of local government or how it works and, at least my impression was, his first real interaction with local government confused him and probably left him feeling like he was being picked on by overly legalistic people. I don’t think there was a way to have made the interaction go any better, because the rules are the rules and it is ultimately harmful and causes problems if they are waived arbitrarily due to the emotions caused by specific circumstances. But I still felt a little badly that this interaction with local government probably seemed very negative to him.
I’m also a little curious about the “neighbor” who complained to the city about his sidewalk to begin with. I’m sympathetic to complaints if they’re about properties that chronically have problems, but if this was a one-time icy sidewalk I’m less sympathetic to someone narc-ing out a property owner because of an icy sidewalk on March 1st when we all know the rollercoaster that is March weather in Wisconsin.]
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=922398&GUID=2DB50860-BE87-4E46-961C-5DAFB0360FDC
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