Due To Public Notice Concern, Parks And Recreation Committee Votes To Hold Ellen Kort Peace Park No Mow May Resolution At Committee For 2 Weeks

The Parks and Recreation Committee met 04/24/2023. One of the items sort of on the agenda was Resolution 4-R-23, the resolution that would have Ellen Kort Peace Park left un-mowed during the month of May as part of No Mow May. The committee ended up deciding to hold the item for 2 weeks and take it up at the 05/08/2023 Parks and Recreation Committee meeting.

I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download.

I say the item was “sort of” on the agenda because as I noted when I posted the agenda, the resolution was listed on the city’s Legistar page as an action item, but it was not listed on the downloadable PDF agenda. This was possibly caused by a technical glitch with the system that the Clerk’s office uses to enter agenda items.

it turns out, that the item not appearing on the PDF agenda was potentially an issue.

City Attorney, Christopher Behrens, explained to the committee that there was a 24-hour notice requirement that needed to be satisfied for action items on the agenda. He had only been made aware of the agenda issue a little earlier in the evening, and he did not have enough information to know if that 24-hour notice period was satisfied by the item appearing on the Legistar page but not the PDF agenda. Out of an abundance of caution, he recommended that the committee hold the item, and noted that, if it was a time-sensitive item, they could hold a special meeting of the Parks and Recreation Committee meeting ahead of the Common Council meeting on 05/03/2023.

Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9), one of the sponsors of the resolution, made a motion to hold the item until the next regular meeting of the Parks and Recreation Committee, which would be on 05/08/2023.

The committee consulted with Dean Gazza, the Director of Parks, Recreation, and Facilities, as to whether it was necessary to hold a special meeting so that the item could be voted on by Council next week. Director Gazza indicated that they were not going to be mowing the grass prior to the Council meeting on 05/17/2023, and, in fact, he wasn’t sure grass would be growing down there for a while. He told the committee, “If the weather gets conducive, we’ll be out there and the contractor will be seeding the areas that were disturbed for putting in the trail. The geese were mowing the grass quite a bit today, when I went by there. I’m not sure we’re gonna get any grass to grow down there for some time.”

In light of that, the committee members did not see a need to hold a special meeting and felt it was fine to wait two weeks to take it up again. They voted 5-0 to approve the 2-week hold.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1092176&GUID=0DDFD8C8-ED54-46EA-A3D0-FB86E43E9EFC