The Common Council is meeting 10/02/2024 at 7PM.
They don’t actually have a lot of action items on the agenda, but I would not expect it to be a short meeting.
There are several items of business to be presented by the mayor including the Fire Department Civilian Award presentation, City Star awards, and of perhaps most impact on the public the presentation of the 2025 Executive Budget and Service Plan.
Although there are not a lot of action items, there are several that seem likely to be separated out for individual votes.
The first is the request from Appleton Downtown Inc. for free ramp and meter parking on Small Business Saturday, 11/30/2024. This will first be voted on during a special meeting on the Municipal Services Committee just prior to the Council meeting. Last year, there was a lot of discussion about the practical aspects of allowing free ramp parking, and the committee and Council ended up only approving free on-street parking.
The second is the request from a Ballard Road homeowner for a variance so that he can maintain the concrete slab he installed ostensibly as a turn-around to facilitate existing his driveway more safely but which may also be used as a parking spot. The contractor the homeowner hired incorrectly claimed that a permit was not needed, so the plans were never run past city staff, and it turns out that the slab in its current configuration does not meet city code. The Municipal Services Committee voted 3-1 to recommend the variance be denied.
The third is the bartender/operator license for Cindy. Between 1995 and 2007, Cindy was convicted 3 times for driving while intoxicated. In 2024 she received a felony conviction for driving with a prohibited alcohol concentration. While not legally intoxicated, her blood did test at a .026 blood alcohol content level which was higher than state law allowed someone with 3 OWI convictions to drive at. The Police Department recommended that her bartender license not be renewed. Cindy claimed to the Safety and Licensing Committee that the elevated alcohol level was caused by having taken some NyQuil. 3 of 4 committee members believed this assertion; they also, incorrectly, seemed to believe that she had had no interactions with the law between her 2007 OWI conviction and her 2024 conviction for driving with a prohibited blood alcohol content level. They voted 3-1 to recommend her bartender license be renewed.
The fourth is the aldermanic salary for the 2026-27 term. The Human Resources and Information Technology Committee voted unanimously to recommend no increase to the aldermanic salary and to keep it at its currently level of $6,750. While the $15,000 in salary overpayments made since 2017 was obliquely referenced; there was no open discussion about that.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=844718&GUID=ACFDC86B-4B88-44E7-AC82-336B5D0184E8
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