The Common Council met 05/17/2023. One of the items they separated out for an individual vote was a request from a resident to have the $75 snow removal assessment she was charged by the city waived. This item was recommended 3-1 for denial by the Municipal Services Committee on 05/08/2023.
Rachel, the resident requesting the waiver, did not attend the Municipal Services Committee to plead her case; nor did she attend the Common Council meeting. She did, however, correspond with her alderperson, Denise Fenton (District 6), and in that email wrote, “My reason for protesting the fine is that for the city sidewalk is it is shoveled daily after my 4pm work shift. The patches you see in the picture have several children’s footprints in the patches of snow because my house is located in a school zone.”
Alderperson Fenton believed that in this case a waiver was probably justified, but the council voted 11-4 to uphold the denial and maintain the assessment with Alderpersons Vered Meltzer (District 2), Israel Del Toro (District 4), Fenton, and Alex Schultz (District 9) voting in favor of granting the waiver.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download.
Alderperson Fenton asked for the item to separated out for an individual vote. She said that Rachel had been unable to attend the Municipal Services Committee meeting due to illness. Alderperson Fenton had expected her to attend the Common Council meeting, but she did not appear. Nevertheless, Alderperson Fenton believed that waiver was warranted in this situation in light of the claim that the property was shoveled daily and that the patches of snow were the result of students from the schools directly across the street walking on the sidewalk before it was shoveled. Alderperson Fenton said, “And from the photos, it does look like a lot of footprints, and not a whole lot of snow.”
Alderperson Schultz also thought the photos did not show very much snow. He asked if staff could confirm for the Council whether the photographs were representative of conditions or if there had been a more hazardous situation than appeared in the photo.
Mayor Woodford did not allow that question to be answered and reminded the Council that the issue at hand was the city’s ordinance about snow removal, not the hazard the snow may have presented. He did allow Public Works Director Danielle Block to speak on the city’s ordinance about snow removal.
Director Block to the Council, “In relation to the ordinance, the ice or snow or hazard shall continue to be treated in such a manner to prevent it from being dangerous until it can be removed. So, if the snow accumulation is packed down and creating this ice or snow type hazard, it is the responsibility of the property owner to treat it until such a time that you would be able to remove it with shoveling.”
Alderperson Patrick Hayden (District 7) noted that it looked like 2 weekdays passed between the snow fall event and the time the city employee came and laid down salt during which the sidewalk could have been shoveled. “I guess I’m just having a little bit of a hard time understanding the explanation that Alder Fenton received.”
Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) confirmed that a city staff member had gone to the residence and salted the sidewalk resulting in the city incurring an expense. He was not in favor of waiving the fee, saying, “If we waive this, someone else is paying it which means the rest of the taxpayers are paying it.”
There was no further discussion, and the Council went on to vote 11-4 to uphold the $75 assessment.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1084964&GUID=534943ED-CEDD-4AAB-876A-D1D8828DEE05
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