The Common Council met 12/18/2024. They separated 3 items out for individual votes. Those items were the approval of a consultant to conduct a water rate study, the approval of a consultant to update the city’s strategic plan, and the request to approve relocation order on Lawe Street pertaining to the street reconstruction.
All three items were approved, but Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) voted against hiring the consultant to update the city’s strategic plan.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
ITEM 24-1598 – Approve Water Rate Study Consultant: This item was the subject of a special meeting of the Utilities Committee that took place earlier in the day. Per the memo from city staff the utility plant’s assets have increased over $56 million to a total of $212 million. At the same time, customers have decreased their water use. “The financial structure of the Water Utility must be prepared to support current operations, future capital improvements and debt service.”
The purpose of the proposed rate study is “to provide assistance to the City to complete the required PSC conventional rate increase process.” City staff were recommending that the city hire Trilogy which submitted the second highest quote of $22,400. This recommendation was based on both the cost of their quote and the overall quality of their proposal.
Alderperson Hartzheim asked about why staff were recommending the company that they were rather than the company with the lowest quote.
Finance Director Jeri Ohman responded, “We looked at multiple factors, including what types of reports, sample reports that we could see, references that we received on the different entities, as well as work that they performed. So, we looked at all of that. That’s what came up with the proposal score. And then when we factored in the different pricing, we came up—the total score indicated we went with Trilogy.”
The Council voted 12-0 to approve the contract.
ITEM 24-1546 – Approval to hire CP2 Consulting for the City of Appleton Strategic Guide Facilitation Services: Although this item was separated out during the Council meeting, no discussion took place. It was, however, discussed during the recent Human Resources and Information Technology Committee meeting.
During that meeting, Human Resources Director Jay Ratchman explained the reasons behind updating the city’s strategic plan, which included the fact that the current leadership team was fairly new and the existing strategic plan was last updated in 1999. During that meeting, Alderperson Hartzheim expressed opposition to the reallocation of American Recovery Plan Act funds to cover the cost of the consultant stating she did not feel this was something the city should be spending ARPA funds on. She voted against the item at the committee meeting, and she voted against it again at the Common Council.
The item did, however, pass by a vote of 11-1.
ITEM 24-1569 – Request to approve the Relocation Order for the Lawe Street reconstruction project from College Avenue to Spring Street: Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) asked for this item to be separated out. He viewed it as being “a pretty significant amount of eminent domain acquisitions from property owners by the city” and wanted to know what the communication process had been over the year and how it had been received by the property owners. “I haven’t heard anything negative from the community, so I assume everything is good, and you guys did an excellent job telling them what was up. But I just want to hear from staff, because I’m basically ignorant on the process.”
Public Works Director Laura Jungwirth told the Council that all but two of the parcels covered by the Relocation Order were for Temporary Limited Easements. They were temporary in nature and were necessary to perform re-grading the sidewalk. Because the Lawe Street reconstruction project was being funded through a DOT grant, the city was required to obtain these easements.
She only joined the city a few months ago, after the process was well underway, but she did note that she had recently done something similar in the City of Menasha and stated, “I]t is an extensive amount of time to work through some of these negotiations and get these obtained. But ultimately, I think people see what the intention is for and are relatively pretty agreeable once they sit down and are explained what it is.”
The Council approved this item by a vote of 12-0.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1245453&GUID=9F7DF47B-7B71-4052-BB80-E3F9C2A5619C
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