The Common Council is meeting 11/08/2023 at 6PM.
They will be voting on and adopting the 2024 Executive Budget.
There are several proposed amendments that they will be considering.
Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) would like to add $8,000 to the Police Department budget for flock Safety Cameras and pay for it by removing $8,000 from the Mayor’s budget ($5,000 from the training/conferences budget and $3,000 from the Poet Laureate program). [I expect I’m not the only Appletonian who’s response to that was “Appleton has a Poet Laureate program?”]
Alderperson Doran would also like to $51,000 from the sanitation budget.
Alderperson Sheri Harzheim (District 13) has also put forth three proposed amendments.
One would remove $50,000 from the $100,000 budgeted for “marketing and wayfinding signage” in the parking utility budget.
The second would reduce the Common Council Training/Conference budget by $1,725. Per Alderperson Hartzheim’s statement on her aldermanic blog, this would return the Council’s training budget to a reasonable $115 per council district and “will equitably pay for the League of Wisconsin Municipalities Local Government 101 training for each council member.”
Finally, she would like to return the special assessment rate for new concrete street construction to 75% for 2024. As proposed, the budget would increase that rate to 100% which she believes would result in a substantial increase to the special assessment many homeowners in newer subdivisions have already budgeted for. “I prefer to see this rate raised in a stepped fashion — perhaps 85% in 2025 and then 100% in 2026 — so that new homeowners are not caught unaware and unprepared to pay perhaps thousands more in street construction special assessments in the next year.”
Beyond approving the 2024 budget, the Council may take up the issue of the aldermanic salary for 2025. This Common Council failed to approve any changes during the 11/01/2023 Common Council meeting, but Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) has indicated on her aldermanic Facebook page that she intends to ask for the item to be reconsidered at the 11/06/2023 Common Council meeting.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1121012&GUID=834E4401-22F0-4C04-BE84-435ACF4B7258
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