Common Council Votes Again Budget Amendment That Would Reallocate Council Training Budget To Concrete Reconstruction

The Common Council met 11/09/2022 and voted to adopt the 2023 Executive Budget. The budget was adopted without changes; however, four separate amendments were proposed during the meeting, none of which were approved. The first amendment which was to reduce the aldermanic parking pass benefit, failed by a 12 to 2 vote.

The second amendment (and the focus of this post) was made by Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) who wanted to removed $1,400 that was allocated for Common Council training and conferences and reallocate it to the Public Works Department for concrete reconstruction. Like the first amendment, this also failed by a 12 to 2 vote with only Alderpersons Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) and Doran voting in favor of it.

I’ve prepared a transcript of the full discussion for your downloading pleasure.

Alderperson Doran explained that he was trying to find ways to pinch pennies in order to fund street maintenance which was one of the city’s priorities. The city was planning to bring back Appycademy which provided great training about what staff did, how the budget process worked, and what the departments did with the dollars they were allocated. Given that that training was free, he thought they could eliminate the training budget for the Council so the funds could be used elsewhere.

Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) pointed out that the purpose of the training budget was not to help alderpersons learn about what the city does but rather to reimburse them for training that would help them become effective leaders and improve their skills in negotiation and collaboration.

In response to a question from Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) Director of Public Works Danielle Block said that a basic concrete reconstruction of an alley cost about $1.1 million per mile and that $1,400 would pay for about 10 sidewalk block squares.

Alderpersons Meltzer and Maiyoua Thao (District 7) spoke highly about the training opportunities the training budget facilitated.

Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) opposed the amendment, saying, “10 blocks of concrete sidewalk or, if you look at the numbers, it’s 1/100th of 1% of the Public Works budget. So, I don’t even know why we’re having this conversation.”

Alderperson Hartzheim, however, was in favor of the amendment, saying, “There’s a developer on the north side who would like to add to District 13. I presume it’ll be District 13. But we can’t get Lightning Drive built. 10 blocks of sidewalk might mean nothing, but it might mean a lot to getting an entire new development on the north side of Appleton, increasing our tax base. If we can find $1,000 in six different budget items, seven different budget items shouldn’t we?”

The amendment failed by a 12-2 vote.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1001699&GUID=79453C2A-9A80-4E2E-9871-B422793269CD