The Parks and Recreation committee met 05/12/2023. One of the items they took up was the resolution calling for the City of Appleton to join the Wisconsin Local Government Climate Coalition. The resolution was approved by the committee after undergoing some extensive changes to the “Whereas” statements.
The original resolution included multiple paragraphs laying out Appleton’s history of climate change responses and sustainability activities. The amended resolution removed all of those, keeping only the paragraph that stated “WHEREAS, The City of Appleton Advisory Panel on Sustainability and Climate Resilience has recommended the City of Appleton join the Wisconsin Local Government Climate Coalition,” before jumping down to the final paragraph which they amended to remove the final three words so that it read read, “NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, by the Common Council of the City of Appleton that the City of Appleton officially joins the Wisconsin Local Government Climate Coalition,” and no longer included “in there efforts” at the end of the paragraph.
Alderpersons William Siebers (District 1), Kristine Alfheim (District 11), and Nate Wolff (District 12) all voted in favor of the changes while Alderperson Patrick Hayden (District 7) voted against the amendment, and then all four of them went on to vote unanimously in favor of passing the amended resolution.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download.
Director of Parks, Recreation, and Facilities Dean Gazza explained to the committee that the city’s sustainability coordinator, Steve Schrage, had come across the Wisconsin Local Government Climate Coalition and after studying it believed it would be a beneficial group to join particularly in terms of grants.
Director Gazza described himself as “a conservative sustainable guy.” He was in favor of pursuing sustainable options but they had to make financial sense. He did not want to spent $2 million or $200,000 to only save $100,000. He liked that joining this coalition would open up networking opportunities and grant opportunities but would not commit the city to do anything. For example, if the coalition decided it was committing to be carbon neutral by 2030, the City of Appleton would not have to participate in that initiative because it was a member.
He noted that Appleton was already a Green Tier Legacy City which had been very effective for networking and educational opportunities as well as in having the DNR not inspect them as rigorously as it would have if the city was not a Green Tier Legacy City, but it was not as beneficial for grants.
The changes to the resolution were prompted by concerns initially raised by Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) who liked the idea of pooling resources and working with other communities as well as the increased opportunity for grants but disagreed with some of the initiatives the coalition was promoting (which she did not specify) and did not agree with some of the verbiage within the resolution. Specific language within the resolution she gave as examples of things she had concerns about were:
- The statement “Whereas the City of Appleton shares the goals of the Wisconsin Local Government Climate Coalition,” because she didn’t know whether Appleton shared every single goal of the coalition or how Appleton would respond if the coalitions goals changed.
- The statement “Members [of the coalition] recognize that climate change poses severe risks to our communities and that we cannot avoid the worst effects of climate change without effective state policy,” which she found to be hyperbolic.
City Attorney Christopher Behrens noted that there had been times in the past where the Council had gotten bogged down amending the “whereas” portions of resolutions even though the action of the resolution was found in the “Now Therefore, be it resolved” portion of the resolution. He recommended that, when crafting future resolutions, alderpersons keep in mind “you may have somebody that agrees with the ‘now therefore,’ but has some issues with the ‘whereases’, but when it comes down to it, the action falls within the ‘therefore be it resolved’.”
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) who was not a member of the committee but was in attendance, suggested that the committee keep the third “whereas” statement (“Whereas, The City of Appleton Advisory Panel on Sustainability and Climate Resilience has recommended the City of Appleton join the Wisconsin Local Government Climate Coalition”), cut out all the other whereas statements and move down to the final paragraph (“Now Therefore Be It Resolved, by the Common Council of the City of
Appleton that the City of Appleton officially joins the Wisconsin Local Government Climate Coalition in their efforts.”)
That seemed like a straightforward way to get the resolution passed if some of the alderpersons disagreed with some of the non-actionable language in the resolution.
The committee and non-committee alderpersons in attendance discussed the purpose of the coalition and how that intersected with Appleton’s goals.
Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3) the primary author of the resolution said, “I think, by joining a coalition to at least at the broadest sense, you’re pursuing the same goals. You may not agree on every single task or action that can be taken towards that goal with our partners in the coalition if we were to join, but you still have a high level, you know, general sense of where you want to go.”
There was a general understanding that joining the coalition:
- Roughly aligned with Appleton’s sustainability efforts
- Provided grant opportunities
- Provided opportunities to collaborate with other municipalities
- Did not cost the city any money
- Did not have to cost the city staff time, and Mr. Schrage could stop attending meetings if they no longer seemed to be providing a benefit
- Did not require the city to committee to any initiatives or actions to be a part of the coalition
Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) thought that a pared down resolution focusing only on whether or not the city would join the coalition was the way to go, and mentioned that he was somewhat surprised Appleton was not already a member.
The committee members seemed to have some difficulty in wording the amendment to the resolution correctly, but Alderperson Alfheim finally put forward an amendment that eliminated all the whereas statements except the third one and also for added clarification amended the Now Therefore Be It Resolved clause to read “by the Common Council of the City of Appleton that the City of Appleton officially joins the Wisconsin Local Government Climate Coalition,” instead of reading as it was originally written, “by the Common Council of the City of Appleton that the City of Appleton officially joins the Wisconsin Local Government Climate Coalition in their efforts.” This was a way to highlight Appleton’s independence while joining the coalition.
This amendment was approved by a 3-1 vote. Alderperson Hayden voted against it, saying that he felt they were losing a lot of the meaning behind the resolution with those changes. However, after the amendment was approved, he voted in favor of the resolution.
Alderperson Croatt voiced the opinion that this amended version was something that the Common Council could pass unanimously. Some of the recent members of the coalition had voted unanimously to join, and he thought it would be neat if Appleton could do likewise.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1092181&GUID=5AA50E5C-ECAA-434F-BEE3-75A3AC62B364
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