On 04/18/2022 at 5:15PM the recently elected alderpersons will be sworn in during a ceremony in Houdini Plaza. After that, at 6PM, they will hold an informal organizational meeting. This is an opportunity for them to review and discuss potential rule changes. They won’t vote on any rule changes until the formal organizational meeting on 04/20/2022.
Although Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3) had mentioned on his aldermanic blog the possibility of a rule being introduced that would allow alderpersons to withdraw resolutions, it does not seem that anyone has submitted such a rule. We’ll have to see if it’s brought up during the meeting.
Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) was the only one who formally submitted rules for consideration ahead of time so that they could be included on the agenda.
The first rule change would update the Remote Meeting Participation rules to increase the notice period for an alderperson to appear remotely from 24 hours to 48 hours.
The second rule change would update the rule regarding calling the question, requiring that Council members unanimously vote to call the question, instead of only a majority of members voting in favor of the motion. It would also limit the number of times a motion to call the question could be made to one time per item. [I’m hoping this rule change won’t be approved because it seems like it would just drag out discussions that often aren’t actually productive.]
The third proposed rule change would cause committee appointments to be made by the Council President instead of the mayor. [That one seems reasonable. At a state and national level, legislative bodies appoint their own committee members instead of governors or the President. It would make sense for Appleton’s legislative body to have autonomy in this respect as well.]
The final proposal Alderperson Doran made was a new rule that reads as follows:
“A committee may hold an item for no more than two meeting cycles, before it is required to be back on the committee agenda for action. The same item may be held at council for two meeting cycles, but then must appear on the following council agenda for action.”
[I suspect the way the city brand study was basically killed by being held indefinitely at committee may have prompted this proposed rule. I’m not sure it makes sense. There have been a number of items that have been held at committee for more than two meeting cycles, not because they were trying to slow things down but because staff needed time to research or circumstances made taking up the item not opportune. For example, the political yards sign resolution was held for a couple months so that staff could research it.]
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=937635&GUID=05E36FE4-4131-434B-9DB0-601E8353861B
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