The Common Council met 08/08/2025. The alderpersons separated out 11 items to be voted on individually, but they did not discuss comment on or discuss most of those items so it only took around 15 minutes to conduct Council business. The separated items included all four of the items related to the issuance of $33.4 million in city debt for the upcoming budget year, a request from Edison Elementary to paint additional lightbulb images on the sidewalk showing safe walking routes to school, and an update to the Municipal Code allowing licensed electricians to be able to perform certain work on their own property that homeowners had previously been banned from performing.
The only item that was not approved unanimously was the Municipal Code update. Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim made a motion to amend it with updated verbiage that maintained the same meaning as the original updated version but was, in her opinion, more grammatically appropriate. Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) objected to the removal of the pronouns “they” and “their”, but the amendment was approved by a vote of 8 to 6 and then the amended version was approved by a vote of 11 to 3.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
CITY DEBT ISSUANCE ITEMS – The city’s debt issuance proposal for the 2026 budget included $10,865,000 of general obligation promissory notes, $8,975,000 in water system revenue refunding bonds, $4,725,000 in sewerage system revenue bonds, and $8,800,000 in storm water system revenue refunding bonds for a total of $33,365,000. This was discussed and recommended for approval by the Finance Committee on 07/21/2025.
The city’s Baird advisor Brad Viegut attended the Common Council meeting and told the Council that the debt issuance proposal included a new process for issuing that debt called a parameters resolution which, as the name implies, establishes parameters (in this case the top interest rate allowed by the Council) for the award of the issuance. Per Mr. Viegut, “All that means is, with your authorization tonight, we will finalize the steps that are required to bring these issues to market, and then the terms, the rates, everything can be finalized outside of a regular council meeting. And the benefit to the city is there’s more flexibility in case of changes in the market that we can pull the issues back, or go back into the market, and not try to peg that to a specific meeting date of the council. So, it’s really to provide greater flexibility.”
The Common Council voted 14-0 to approve the 4 debt issuance items.
EDISON ELEMENTARY SIDEWALK STENCILS – Columbus Elementary was recently closed and the students in that neighborhood will be attending Edison Elementary in the fall. Edison currently has stencils of lightbulbs painted on various sidewalks showing designated safe walking routes to school. They would expand those safe rout markings to help students in what was previously the Columbus attendance area. This item was recommended for approval by the Municipal Services Committee on 07/21/2025.
Speaking in his personal capacity, Appleton Area School District Board of Education member Oliver Zornow attended the meeting and spoke on behalf of this request. He indicated that this expansion of the safe walking routes stencils was only part of the first round of recommendations to come out of a Safe Routes To School Task Force that AASD had put together. Other recommendations included installing a crosswalk at Atlantic Street with additional pedestrian signage, installing signage and crosswalks at the railroad tracks, adding an additional crossing guard at Drew and North Street, and installing additional stop signs at Drew and North Street.
He did not, however, want to give the impression that those recommendations solved all of Edison students’ walkability challenges, and he noted that he was award the city was seeking a grant so that it could do a more comprehensive study.
When the item was voted on, Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) commented, “Really appreciate the wonderfully kind words of gratitude that Oliver Zornow shared, and I just in return want to share some words of gratitude for the neighbors who get together and are so engaged about this, and it’s just a great thing to see that kind of engagement happening as we work on these sorts of improvements. So just want to have it on record on the meeting video that really grateful for the hard work that those neighbors are doing.”
The item was approved by a vote of 14 to 0.
TEXT AMENDMENTS TO THE MUNICIPAL CODE, CHAPTER 4 BUILDINGS (SEC. 4-392 EXEMPTIONS) – The Municipal Code generally allowed owners of owner-occupied homes to perform their own electrical work; however, in 2018 they had placed some restrictions on that, preventing owners from performing service changes and installing solar photovoltaic systems after inspectors had noticed a number of homeowners struggling to perform that work. The update in front of the Common Council on 08/06/2025 removed those restrictions from homeowners who were licensed electricians. The item was reviewed and recommended for approval by the Community Development Committee on 07/23/2025.
During the Common Council meeting, Alderperson Hartzheim introduced an amended version of the proposed update. The amended version maintained the same meaning, but eliminated the use of the words they and their to refer to individual people. She said that she had run the changes past the Attorneys Office and the Community Development Department which found the changes to be to their satisfaction.
Alderperson Fenton opposed the amended changes saying, “I don’t see that this amendment is necessary. I think that it is a move to remove what is being called gender inclusive language, the use of “they” and “their”, and I don’t find it necessary, and I won’t be voting for it.”
The Council ended up voting 8-6 to approve the amendment with Alderpersons Meltzer, Fenton, Patrick Hayden (District 7), Alex Schultz (District 9), Adrian Stancil-Martin (District 11), and Nate Wolff (District 12) voting against the amendment, and Alderpersons Josh Lambrecht (District 1), Brad Firkus (District 3), Martyn Smith (District 4), Katie Van Zeeland (District 5), Vaya Jones (District 10), Hartzheim, Chris Croatt (District 14), and Denis Dougherty (District 15) voting in favor of it.
The amended version was then approved by a vote of 11-3 with Alderpersons Fenton, Schultz, and Wolff casting the dissenting votes.
REZONING, FUTURE LAND USE MAP AMENDMENT, AND CERTIFIED SURVEY MAP APPROVAL RELATED TO PARCELS NEAR COUNTY HIGHWAY OO AND US HIGHWAY – These three items pertained to a section of land near the intersection of Northland Avenue and Highway 441 which is a good location for commercial and light industrial development. The developer wanted to rezone the land to Commercial and then divide the parcel into 3 lots and 1 outlot in order to facilitate development of the property. The item was recommended for approval by the City Plan Commission on 06/25/2025. The Common Council did not discuss the items but voted 14-0 to approve them.
Later in the meeting as part of the consolidated items, the Common Council voted unanimously to approve a Special Use Permit allowing for business owner to use one of the lots for the pre-delivery and inspection of pre-ordered electric vehicles as well as for customer education demo drives, auto repair, and auto service. This special use permit was associated with the proposed development of the property along Northland Avenue near Highway 441. This had been discussed and recommended for approval at the 07/23/2025 City Plan Commission meeting.
AUTHORIZATION AND EXECUTE COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT BETWEEN VALLEY TRANSIT, WISDOT, AND EAST CENTRAL WISCONSIN REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION – This is an agreement that Valley Transit is required by the federal government to have in order to receive federal money. It relates to planning efforts. It was discussed and recommended for approval by the Transit Commission on 07/22/2025.
CLASS “B” BEER AND RESERVE “CLASS B” LIQUOR LICENSE APPLICATION FOR THE TROUT MUSEUM OF ART – This item appeared before the Safety and Licensing Committee on 07/23/2025 at which time staff it was recommended for approval with no discussion. The Trout Museum of Art would like to start serving alcohol. Per the application “Alcohol service will primarily take place within the Community Gathering Space, particularly in the Drinkery seating area. Additionally, alcohol may be permitted in other rooms hosting programmatic activities, which are occasionally rented to the public.” They lay out further details about their plans for the cafe and social space in their application.
The Common Council did not comment on or discuss the item, but they did vote 14-0 to approve it.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1316586&GUID=7729CD2F-2AE9-42F1-8BF9-EDC38590825C
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