The Safety and Licensing Committee met 07/23/2025. In addition to receiving the biannual Gold Cross report, they received multiple other reports and updates, including the Fire department Mid-Year Report, the Administrative Services Mid-Year Report, information on recent alcohol license violation convictions, special events, and Director’s Reports.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
FIRE DEPARTMENT MID-YEAR REPORT – Fire Chief Jeremy Hansen touched on a few highlights from the Fire Department’s Mid-Year Report.
They recently upgraded the level of service on their fire engines from EMT Basic to Paramedic. This transition included training all of their members, whether or not they were paramedics, on their new service capabilities, familiarizing them with the equipment and patient care guidelines.
They had five retirements and one current employee be deployed to Kuwait for a year, so they hired 6 new people all of whom would be actively working starting 07/25/2025.
They were in the processes of negotiating a contract with the firefighter union and had reached a tentative agreement which would hopefully be approved by the union and then would come before the committee and Common Council for approval in August.
The pavilion at Lundgaard Park was under construction and was scheduled to be completed in late September. They were going to hold a dedication ceremony. They would do that either in October or possibly wait until May 15 so as to align with the date Firefighter Mitch Lundgaard was killed.
Budget-wise they were right on target with 44% of the budget spent thus far this year.
They carried out 4,125 emergency responses this year, up slightly from 2024. Approximately 75% of those calls were medically related.
LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES MID-YEAR REPORT – The new City Clerk Amy Molitor gave the report. She noted that postage costs had just increased again on July 13. They were working on reducing mass mailings and were encouraging other departments to cut back in they were able. Additionally, the contract for the mail machine they were leasing was up at the end of September and they were looking at a different, lower-cost option for metering all of their mail which would be by piece rather than through a quarterly contract.
She said that they were pretty much where they expected to be for most of their accounts. They had not, however, brought in a lot of money year-to-date because of the new chargeback model for special events, where event organizers were charged after the event for services rendered rather than up-front.
Service agreements for five of the big special events were in place, so all the big special events were set. For smaller events that they knew about, the city had been reaching out to and working with event organizers to help them work through the new special event process and meeting the new approval deadline of 45 days before an event. With the exception of the hiccup with the Summer Shootout soccer tournament, everything was going smoothly.
ALCOHOL LICENSE VIOLATIONS CONVICTIONS – 5 businesses had been convicted of selling alcohol to minors and had received demerits on their alcohol licenses. Those businesses were El Azteca, Lindo Michoacan (which was also recently convicted for not having a licensed operator on the premises, Mill City Public House, Northland Amoco, and the Bent Keg.
Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3) mentioned that it seemed like there were a lot of convictions recently and he wondered if that was objectively true or just his perception. Assistant City Attorney Zak Buruin said that, based on his experience working at the city, the numbers did seem high. A Police Department representative said that they were using the same methodology they had always been using in their checks, but just happened to be resulting in these violations.
SPECIAL EVENTS – There were a number of special events past and upcoming. They did not discuss them.
DIRECTOR’S REPORTS – City Clerk Molitor thanked the alderpersons for having approved her appointment as City Clerk. She said that the city was in the process of hiring a Deputy City Clerk to fill the position she previous held. The job opening closed on 07/27/2025 and they would be holding interviews in early August.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1284218&GUID=2F214F46-4990-41A0-8FBC-9C7164057FF0
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