The Common Council met 02/19/2025. One of the items they voted on was a request to accept a $134,180 Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant to be used for the purchase of an electric vehicle and the installation of a charging station. The city had initially hoped to use these funds for the Library Project, but that use ended up not fitting within the bounds of the grant. As a result, in order to avoid losing the grant award, city staff requested it go toward the purchase of an electric vehicle which would replace a traditional fuel vehicle.
After initially being recommended for approval, this item had been referred back to the committee for a second look which, again, voted unanimously that it be approved.
The Common Council ended up voting 14 to 1 to approve using the grant for the purchase of an electric vehicle and the installation of a charging station. Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) cast the lone dissenting vote.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
Director of Parks and Recreation Dean Gazza, who also oversees city facilities, told the committee, “Almost in any case, the project size or magnitude or scope would exceed the amount of money that we’ve been given. So, if you’re given the amount that we did, $134,000, now it comes down to finding a project that you can pay for without having to come up with any other funding.” For this reason, when they found out they could not use the money for the library project, city staff decided they would like to use it to purchase an electric vehicle. This vehicle purchased with grant money would offset the purchase of a traditional fuel vehicle that would have needed to be purchased at the expense of City of Appleton taxpayers. City staff had been interested in trying out an electric vehicle for some time and this was a cost effective way for them to be able to do so.
Alderperson Doran opposed using the funds to purchase an electric vehicle. He thought it would be more appropriate for the city to return the money if it could not use it for the library project. Additionally, he stated, “These are still tax dollars, some of ours, some of other places, and our job is to wisely use the money that’s given to us, and I think testing it on something like this that is for a very, in my view, volatile industry that is changing very rapidly both with the technology for the vehicles and the chargers. I believe at one point, Director Gazza even mentioned that by the time the first vehicle that we might purchase is no longer useful to us, we may have to replace the charging technology already. I think there’s just too much unknown here, and this is an investment, I think, without a plan, and I don’t believe that’s the right way for us to operate.”
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) pointed out that the city had not sought the grant out specifically for the library but had designated it for the library project after it had been awarded.
Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) did not like the idea of returning the money. “[Y]es, it’s not free money, and it is it is ultimately tax dollars, but if we give it back, it’s just going to go somewhere else and somebody else and somebody else is going to spend it on probably something similar. So that’s the struggle that I have with giving it back.”
Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3) was in favor of using the funds for an electric vehicle purchase. “I think the upshot of dipping our toe into electrification of fleet vehicles is that lot of these electric vehicles have much less maintenance and upkeep costs than in the gasoline powered vehicles. There’s fewer moving parts. There’s fewer things to wear out. That can save the city money in the long term, both in parts as well as in maintenance hours spent on vehicles. The fact that we have a grant available for this means we can do this without having to pull extra funds from the CEA budget.”
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) mentioned that electrifying the city’s fleet of vehicles was a recommendation from the Climate Task Force.
Alderperson Kristin Alfheim (District 11) indicated she had recently purchased an electric vehicle for herself and said, “Turns out it’s something that I’m very glad that I did, that is both financially and comfort-wise really working well for me, and I think for the city’s sake, it’s the same type of opportunity. They may not have planned to go into it fully, but we’ve been waiting to dabble our toes into it, and this is a great opportunity. And again, we may find that this is great technology that we want to utilize more, and we’re going to learn a lot from it.”
The Council ended up voting 14-1 to approve the use of the grant for the purchase of an electric vehicle and the purchase and installation of a charging unit.
[I don’t fault the Council for voting for this. In some respects, this will allow the city to use grant money instead of dollars taken directly from Appleton taxpayers to replace a vehicle with a new vehicle, but I do think it kind of illustrates on a small, local scale how problematic the entire grant system is. Taxpayer money is passed down from the federal and state level with a bunch of strings attached to it and then the recipients of those funds use it not for something they really need but for something they would like. It seems like it artificially creates demand for programs, projects, and activities that would not otherwise be pursued. And, ultimately, regardless of what level of government these grant dollars come from, they come from taxpayers, all of whom could use these dollars in a wiser and more beneficial manner to improve their families and businesses if they were simply allowed to keep the money they made instead of being required to give it to the government so that, ultimately, the City of Appleton can purchase an electric vehicle and charging station.]
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1254912&GUID=B757A893-3C2B-43F2-B22A-EDF53CE044A3
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