The Common Council met 12/21/2022. One of the items that was separated out for an individual vote was the request for approval of the Aquatic Fees and Charges Policy. The updates to the policy included increases to all the fees except for children 3 and under who will still be able to access the pools for free.
During the Parks and Recreation Committee meeting at which this was discussed, Alderperson Joss Thyssen (District 8) voted against the policy, although at the time she didn’t really articulate why specifically she opposed it other than to express concern that the new resident rates for seasonal passes were higher than the non-resident rates in some neighboring municipalities.
At the Council meeting, Alderperson Thyssen introduced two amendments to the policy, both of which were approved. The first eliminated the proposed $20 increase to the youth swim pass, keeping it at $55 for residents and $80 for non-residents. This amendment passed by a vote of 8-6.
The second amendment changed the deadline to purchase summer swim passes at a reduced rate from the first Thursday in May to the first Thursday in June. This amendment passed by a vote of 14-0
The amended policy was approved by a vote of 13-1 with Alderperson Vaya Jones (District 10) casting the dissenting vote.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the full discussion for download.
Prior to introducing the amendments, Alderperson Thyssen expressed concern that households impacted by the current high inflation would have to respond by cutting fun things out of their budgets and that increasing the pool fees would increase the likelihood of them having to do that. She didn’t believe there should be a financial barrier to Appleton’s youths accessing the pools.
She highlighted the fact that the city did offer a Recreation Program Fee Waiver to families who qualified for free and reduced lunches. This program would give them a pool pass good for 15 pool admissions over the summer. [Note: a family of 4 with an annual household income of $51,338 would qualify for a swim pass. So, this benefit is available to even financially comfortable families.]
She expressed concern that information on the fee waiver program was not easily accessible on the Parks and Recreation website and noted that, while 42% of Appleton Area School District students were considered economically disadvantaged, only 45 fee waiver applications had been submitted to the Parks and Recreation Department last year.
Alderperson Thyssen was also concerned about the timeline to purchase swim passes at a reduced rate. The deadline had been the first Thursday in May, but that had been when swimming was available year-round at West Pool and the passes were annual passes. Now, there was no year-round swimming, and the passes were only summer passes. She worried that many people would not take advantage of that discount because the pools didn’t open until June.
The amendment removing the increase to the youth summer pass rate passed by a vote of 8-6 with Alderpersons Brad Firkus (District 3), Jones, Kristin Alfheim (District 11), Sheri Hartzheim (District 13), Christopher Croatt (District 14), and Chad Doran (District 15) voting against it.
Alderperson Hartzheim asked for feedback from the Parks and Recreation Department on the proposed amendment to which Deputy Director Tom Flick responded that they had approached the fee increase as an across-the-board increase as a matter of consistency, because they felt it was a little bit challenging to single out specific fees. They did not, however, have any issue with the Council carving out youth passes and keeping them unchanged for 2023. Doing so would not bust their budget.
Alderperson Hartzheim wondered what the impact of this amendment would be on all the other families that would be impacted by increases while the youth rates did not go up.
Alderperson Doran asked for further details on the fee waiver process and whether any applicants had had their applications denied. Deputy Director Flick answered that he was unaware of any applicants having been denied during his time with the city. Interested parties would fill out the application and the Parks and Recreation Department would confirm with the school district whether the family was approved or not. It was a simple, streamlined process.
Alderperson Jones thought they ought to take into consideration not only the youth fees but also the senior fees which were also going up by $20. She felt that a $20 increase could be hard for seniors living on a fixed income. “I don’t know if singling out youth as opposed to other age groups that also face these issues are the best.” [Frankly, if there are two groups that get perks and reduced prices thrown at them it’s children and seniors. Even seniors on fixed incomes aren’t necessarily hurting for pool access. There are multiple Medicare Advantage plans available in the Fox Cities area that have $0 premiums and include Silver Sneakers or a comparable fitness benefit. Additionally, the YMCA also offers a senior discount as well as a slide-rate for low income households of any age. So, I would expect most seniors who want access to a pool could figure something out.]
Alderperson Alfheim thought the city had to deal with the fact that it had increased costs and believed it was more equitable to have those costs shared across all groups, rather than only having the groups other than youth shoulder those costs. She opposed the amendment but also hoped more advertising could be done regarding the fee waiver program.
Other than Alderperson Thyssen, not many alderpersons spoke about why the supported the amendment. Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) mentioned thinking it was appropriate to single out the youth fee, and Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) expressed support because it was not a budget buster and could help some kids.
As stated earlier, the amendment passed by a vote of 8-6
Alderperson Thyssen’s second amendment, to change the deadline to purchase summer passes at a reduced rate from the first Thursday in May to the first Thursday in June garnered no discussion beyond Alderperson Hartzheim confirming with Deputy Director Flick that there would not be any administrative issues with the change.
The amendment was approved 14-0.
The Council had no further discussion regarding the item as amended and went on to vote 13-1 to approve it with only Alderperson Jones voting against it.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1064885&GUID=23157F67-0079-435B-BD93-2236F2BF0F43
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