Council - Regular Meeting

for you.

Okay, I'll back out of there. Yeah. There you go. It could have been you might Yeah, because I left my regular one at

197. exhaustion.

The first Christmas It is 7:00. I'm going to go ahead and call our meeting to order. If we can start with a moment of silence, please. If we can stand for the pledge of

allegiancebody is going to I know it does feel.

I know. Oh, wait. This is Oh, it's 25% off.

I don't know. I don't even know if I have it or I do have it. I have it. There we go. There we go. There we go.

Thanks. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Well, everybody, welcome back to Uh over six or seven months since we've been here, so I'm happy to be back in our regular space. Uh, as a reminder, if you happen to have a phone on you, please make sure that it's off or on silence. City may take a roll call for us, please. Council member Williams, Re, Stewart, Ross here, David here, here, and Mayor Snider

here. Uh, council member, please make sure that your microphone mic is green in front. Do I have a motion to approve uh the agenda? So move. All in favor say I.

So to begin our evening, I will read a proclamation for the Albian area philanthropic women. This was actually read on December 9th at the last meeting that the Albian Area Philanthropic Woman um held and um a lot of great things happened on that day. So I will go ahead and read the proclamation. City of Albian proclamation honoring Albian area philanthropic women. Whereas in 2007, a dedicated group of community-minded women came together with a shared vision to uplift, empower, and strengthen our community through charitable giving. And whereas since its founding, this remarkable philanthropic organization has continually demonstrated an unwavering commitment to service, generosity, and collective impact. And whereas on December 9th, 2025, this organization will reach an extraordinary milestone of $750,000 in total giving, a testament to its tireless dedication and the generosity of its members over the past 18 years. And whereas this milestone not only reflects significant financial contributions but also represents the spirit of collaboration, hope and shared responsibility that has defined the organization since its inception. And whereas the positive impact of this philanthropic group has resonated across our community, leaving a lasting legacy of service and setting an inspiring

example for future generations. Now therefore be it proclaimed that I, Victoria Garcia Snider, mayor of Albian and a proud member of the AAPW, join with the members of city council and the citizens of Albian to celebrate the extraordinary contributions of this organization and its members whose dedication continues to enrich and strengthen our community. So I believe I have a few members from our Alb philanthropic women's organization who would like to receive this consation serious. Mayor.

Okay. So, if we want to come over this way and who wants to receive the proclamation, we are not shy. Winner. Come on. Let's go. Come on in. Oh, you're you're a member. You're okay.

Thank you. down yet. If you would take the podium to kind of give some examples of what the donations of bon forms over the past few years, what type of impact this has had on our community. I'm sure our people here that are listening like to hear where our funds have gone. Emily, I can start. Go ahead.

Um, we started in 2007, I believe, with a group of 60 and it was really very random, open to any woman in the community, age, whatever, doesn't matter. Um, through the years, Kelly, we have supported so many different groups. Um, many in the schools, many in the city. Um, many in recreation. Um, come help. Cherry Township for the Jaws Life. American Legion.

American Legion has several times. The library several times. But the real power of the group is in the numbers. We can all we each write a check for $100 four times a year and you can do that as an individual but the impact of 10,000 is far greater than the impact of a 100red here and 100 there. At our last meeting um the money went to the American Legion and um people come and make a presentation. It's very informal, but yet we have our I guess their rules. Um, and we also collected at the last meeting, um, Homestead donated the lunch. So instead of paying for the lunch that day, everybody used that money and that went to the community table for their Christmas. And then we also collected money for the project, right? So um pass the hat. So it we've impacted

so we've impacted in big ways in small ways and it's many many people. It's a very representative group of the community and it's wonderful to see I think how people feel about being part of a group that knows and recognizes that they're making a difference. So any questions? Don't promise I can answer them. Bye.

I would like to add that's one of the wonderful things of our community of Albian. We have so many nonprofits in and around Albian that need help and this group over the past several years have been able to support all of our local nonprofits in one way or another. Um when I see the collective group of women who come to our meetings, it is very diverse. So you can't say it's just one specific population. It's women all across the board in our community who come together and want to do good. It is. And it also interestingly we have I'm not sure how many but we have a number of women who have left the community that continue to be involved and send their donations um each year and we have generations also um children that went through the schools here that have moved on and gone elsewhere whose parents are involved and they continue to be involved. So, it's a way of keeping people connected that have left for a variety of different reasons. And we would encourage anybody who's interested to come and join us and just see what it's all about. We would welcome anyone. And I think this type of organization is very unique because Albian, just a small little town in the middle of Michigan, has received some great news attention because of what we've been able to do. And Marca, I know that you've been illustrated for an article recently and how unique the impact that we're able to do in such a small community and other communities have tried, excuse me, to copy it and um

for some reason haven't been as effective as we have. And I'm not really sure why that is, but I think it's a testament to the people who are here. And um it was started, it was the brainchild of Maggie um Congo and then Kathy Campbell, as you know, has many chemicals out there and she was the one who helped to draw in a lot of people at the beginning and then it has just continued to grow from there. I will say it's because of you ladies in your generation, you have inspired the younger generation of women in our community to follow in your footsteps and that's why I've done it.

Well, that's good to know. That's the hope because I mean you you women have had such an impact on so many kids because you were all educators and there's many of us who sit here who've been taught by you who've been in, you know, positions where we can now follow your footsteps. And so I think that's the reason why our little group is so effective.

Well, thank you. That's very kind of you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I was thinking of two other organizations just as I looked around the table. Lynn Holland Park is something that we funded and I know CJ is on the board of historical society. We've given money to historical society. So there's hardly, you know, any organization in town or anything that you would be involved in that hasn't at some point just need funding. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next, I will turn the floor over to Chiefs.

Good evening, council, mayor, city manager. How's everybody doing? Happy New Year. You back in this building. almost drove to the high school. Thank you.

Uh today I want to introduce our newest public safety officer, Ryland Dasheny. He's a Marshall High School graduate 2021. Uh we hired Ryland in summer July August this year and went through Kellog Community Colleges Police Academy. Graduated in mid December and he's already in phase one of our FTO process. Um he was a contractor here in the city um working with the dad and then his own business. Correct. did that. So really good with his hands, really good building things. Um had his feet already in the community and he liked us so much that he wanted to work here which we are very thankful and appreciative of. Um so he becomes our 18th sworn officer. Um so once he finishes uh his field training, there's three parts. He'll go he'll be assigned a shift over some point this summer and then he'll do the fire academy in this fall um sometime in October. But I want to take this time and introduce them. Um, as we have with all the other new hires we have. And right now we're we're at 18. So that's technically just one short. And it's pretty good. And that's what I was hoping for. It's what every department is striving for. Um, so very happy, very thankful. family's also here. They also want to thank and for everything that they're going to be subjected to over long hours that we were in third shift and day shift and court and overtime and it takes family related I mean everybody on the same page to do this job and I cannot um speak enough on our families and how much they sacrifice in their own right for us to do this job. So, thank you.

Officer, do you would like to come forward and give us a little information about yourself?

Yeah. What would you like to know? Well, the name of your wife and age of your daughter, where you live? My wife Michaela and my daughter Presley. She's just over two years old. Um, I grew up north of Marshall and now I live right in Morango Township, technically in Albian. Two others. Another one.

Welcome. I'm honored for the opportunity. We are happy to have you on our team. Thank you. All right. Public comments. If there's anybody in the gallery that would like to stand and address council in regards to an agenda item, you may do so at this time. Just come forward. Give us your name and address. And three minutes is yours. Seeing no movement, we will move on. Do I have a motion to approve of the consent calendar items? So move

fourth. In your packet we have December 15 regular minutes. Any questions, comments, directions? All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Do I have a motion to approve of council members attending our 26 conference? So move support. Are there any members who would be interested in attending this conference in March Council? How many did we send last time?

I thought we saw I thought we sent two last he's raw. Is it back? All right. So then we have motion on the table to have council Williams counciloman Davis attend all in favor say I. by Iowa.

Next is our discussion on council in your packet. We have our council rules or procedure. This was brought forth by counciloman Davis. Would you like to let public know why you asked for this to come forth?

Yes. Um, it was refreshing to uh review the rules again, but I recently attended other council meetings in the county and I noticed that the close session and this is for the session this this uh meeting uh the close session was closer to the end of the agenda rather than having the audience sit through our closed session that sometimes that is irrelevant to the business that has been discussed or that will be discussed. So I was making the recommendation that maybe we can consider uh changing our close session to near the end of the agenda but in order to do that we have to look at the council rules. And so this is of course discussion with council members to be cons more considerate of our audience rather than having them sit through the entire meeting uh and come back after the close session to handle business. And if there is business and the close session is near the end, we can move for that meeting to suspend the rules um to have to change the order of business for that particular meeting if necessary. Well, Attorney Harness, could we just amend the agenda template permanently to allow if we do need a close session and have it closer to the end?

Yeah. So, um what we we would need to rule about amend rule 10 of the council rules that sets the template for regular meetings, special meetings. It wouldn't affect study sessions. Um and so we could move uh the close session towards the end of the meeting. One thing I said to Councilman Davis is you know there are not every time but there are in some circumstances when we discuss something in close session and then we need to have an action item based on the conversation in close session. So

I mean we could do it one of two ways. You could you could for that meeting, you know, you know, add something after the close session or move the close session up for that meeting or maybe we just add a placeholder for um action items following the close session, like additional action items. And and you treat it just like you do a close session, meaning if we don't have a close session, you just skip it. Just like if we have a close session that doesn't require action, you just skip that second action item section. So, um, in terms of procedure to amend it, the way that the, um, council rules provided, I think it's rule 20, um, we need to introduce it, this change by resolution, and then vote on it at the meeting after that.

I would be in favor of that of just having a placeholder after that. Um, moving it permanently, having a placeholder. Um, so I got if anybody has opinions on some of these.

Yeah, just got a question. So let's utilize our current agenda packet. So right now the coral session is item number nine. Um, going forward, we take this down to where the future agenda items are. So it' be right before that. And then if we needed to vote on whatever we discussed in the closed session, we'd have the placeholder underneath the closed se um session section.

And probably what I would do is move it after your second public comments because otherwise the public's going to be waiting Yeah. to do um to do public comment after close session. So, I would put it I would I would probably put it right before the city manager, right before the city manager's report and then have an action item placeholder after that. The idea is to avoid the public having to sit through what some, you know, in some circumstances might be a 10-minute close session where we've had close sessions that take most,

but it's a relatively simple change. And if council's in favor of that, I can draft we can draft the amended um council rules and then um would bring a resolution. It's it's a little bit wonky in that the council rule amendment procedure is is almost like an ordinance in it's done by resolution but it's introduced at one meeting and then it's officially voted on and adopted the So can we consider this meeting the meeting where you can introduce it? No, because we'd have to have a resolution. So we'll bring the resolution to the next meeting for its introduction and then you can approve it at your first meeting in February. Sorry. Thank you. Yeah, just to be considered.

How are you? Any other comments on that item? Um, that is our discussion on the rental certification fees.

Permission to approach Good evening, Madame Mayor, members, members of council. Uh this was placed on the agenda this issue um at the request of the city administration and after talking to our housing director who I'd like to introduce Miss Anna Kim of the Albian public housing commission as you know the housing commission was created by this this body um a number of years ago for the purpose of developing um low to moderate income housing for our citizens. and Anna has done an excellent job of of running that. We've come into a little bit of a quandry um in that we have Safe Build who is our uh designated inspectors um and right now we have a number of rental units in our community and let me go over some statistics. Right now, the Albian Housing Commission has 220 um units. altogether. When we take a look at our larger units, um we have about 656 that are currently registered and we feel that there's probably somewhere and this is mostly on the private side probably 150 maybe 300 um units that still aren't registered and that has to be done by I believe April 1. So, one of the things that we were

looking at is that unlike some of the other public housing uh units, the Albian housing uh commission receives a lot of its money and the buildings were built using housing and urban development money. Uh and as such, HUD controls their rules. The rules are is that they put in place a income level which is based on what they what people pay. Unlike in the private sector where there's more more market rates um established in this particular case, she is um somewhat hindered that they they have a set budget with income coming in that is set by the government. there's no more income or revenue. That being said, under our housing ordinance, we have a requirement where each rental unit has to be inspected, has to be registered and inspected. So, if we pull up some numbers here, if we were to continue imposing the $95 um of of inspections, then that's what it costs per unit. $95, we would come up with a figure of $19,800, almost $20,000. that is a significant um income or revenue impact on the public's monies and their budget. They asked Anna to come up and perhaps give enlighten council. The administration is all about trying to find adequate housing and I think Anna does a good job her and the commission of doing that at her facilities. However,

um we're at a dilemma in that the ordinance mandates that not only do they be registered at a fee of $35 per unit, but also the inspection of $95. So, I would you just tell council what the impact is in your operations?

Again, as Mr. has stated um HUD sets our income limits and also our limits for the rent that we could uh charge our tenants whereas in the public sector uh private landlords are able to pass that um amount on to their to their tenants. So we feel that this would be a huge hindrance on the 19,000 $20,000 uh we're already operating at a deficit. Um, my five-year budget has already been passed and of course we did not include any um significant money for site build to complete the inspections. And just to give you a little history, our units are inspected annually, sometimes by annually.

We are actually getting prepared for a HUD inspection on January 19th of this year. So, we've worked diligently and quite hard to get these units up to get up to pop. And then um of course when you have disgruntled tenants um they leave your units you know in a disarray. There's damages that we have to pay for that sometimes are not collectible and the only way that we can stop them from getting uh assistance otherwise is through credit bureau or even our HUD website. So, um, a lot of times we I think last year we wrote off in excess of $90,000 that is not collectible. So, we're just looking for a solution from the city in support of the housing commission being exempt from this uh the safe building stations. Okay.

So, mayor and council, the administration has request phones. I beg your pardon. I'm sorry. Uh, Miss K, thank you for for coming this evening. Uh, What do other communities that also have um a red certification, what do they do in these circumstances? Do you know? I do not. Jackson, if I'm not mistaken, Jackson has a reertification program, but they do not pay. If I'm not mistaken,

they have various different types of public housing. Some of it's totally low to moderate income set by HUT standards, others just by Mishba standards. Um, we did call Jackson to find out and we did that in the fall. Um, they do have an inspection. They do charge, but it was unclear whether or not they charge per unit as opposed to complex. Um, they've had a little bit of turnover there and so the person I talked to was uncertain about that. Um, I called HUD to find out. HUD's requirements are that they are to have an inspection completed on each unit every 3 years. Now, as Anna had indicated, they're due for some inspections, maybe not the entire 220, but at least they're they're lined up to have some inspections done this year. Um, when I had talked to the HUD representative, it was at the time when Dodge was they were getting rid of cutting back, I I called the gentleman at the Detroit office and I said, "I'm surprised somebody answered the phone." And he says, "I am, too." So, um, that's what we're dealing with here. So, I wanted to Every community is different. we're not going to eat. I think that we do have to keep some safeguards in place that allow because we want our citizens to be safe. However, as Anna, those are fixed units that have been here a very long time. We don't have turnover with Anna. We've we know that those those apartments are

being overseen every day. So this makes it a unique situation. However, we still do not want to forgo the safety of our citizens. So mayor French. Thank you, Mayor. Um, so it seems to me that there's a simple solution in that unlike privately held housing units that are are that are owned by private citizens, HUD has an inspection program already in place. So, to my way of thinking, this is double dipping, right? Hug's already getting inspected every two or three years, whatever. Um, and then we're going to charge him again.

That seems inappropriate. So, I would It might be as simple as saying that with the for those apartment units that that are owned federally, um, they're already on an inspection schedule, so we don't need to charge them for inspections. Whereas privately held units, they aren't on a regular inspection schedule, they do approve. Yeah.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, Mayor Pro French, I would normally agree with that, but I I guess I have some other questions for Miss Kemp along the lines of these the details of these inspections. Uh, I know that the central built inspections are are quite thorough uh and quite broad and I would be curious to know what the comparison is between a safe built inspection and uh a housing red development inspection and to see how closely related they are. Um we what I am concerned about is the perceived double standard between the inspection level at the private sector and the inspectation level at the at the federal level. Uh so that's that would be my concern

and well noted one of the uh feelings that we Ann and I have talked about this especially the mechanical electrical and plumbing um whenever we've come to an agreement that anything that requires an appliance hook up with gas a plumbing issue and electrical issue which anything that has to have a permit has to have an inspection that that we're in agreement on that that has to take place and it has to be done by a licensed but we just have to protect the health and safety of all of our residents. So I don't think there's any argument there. Um, I guess at this point your point is well taken. Um, Councilman French, I would ask that the administration be allowed to come up with some language, maybe some ideas that we could bring back to council that would, as it was put to me today to differentiate perhaps a little bit different between the public housing that Ann represents a as opposed to the other rentals that might be in the Not that one is more or less important than the other. It's just that we're in a unique situation where we have 220 units that it is almost $20,000 under a normal circumstance to to inspect. Not you know perhaps we can talk to Safe Bill. Is there any way that we can have a reduced rate or something along those lines? I think that that's important, too. But at this point, we're asking for

a little bit of differentiation between the public housing that we created by ordinance as opposed to the others. And so, we're seeking permission. And you you said we have an upcoming inspection. Yes, you know how many units will be inspected at that time? Uh the computer randomly picks the the units. So around 30 units, 30 to 40 units will be inspected. Is that typical for like an on-site inspection day? Yes. And you said that happens once a year or

No, we inspect. We have our own in-house inspection and that happens annually, sometimes by annually, but HUD comes out two to three times a year depending on your scores. So with the HUD inspection which is scheduled for January 19th. Okay. So with that inspection they is that still authority? Yes. Correct. Cuz I was trying to figure out when you said you had your own inspectors that's different from the HUD. Okay. So when HUD comes out they're going to do 30 or so units units. Yes.

How often do they come back again? It it depends on if we if we if we fail, they'll be back next year. But if we pass, it's two to three years depending on the administration. So we have 220 units currently. Yes. Random. And they're only going to do 30. Approximately 30. And that's what that's what I was trying to like. They'll do 30. And then when will they come back again? If we pass they'll be back within two to three years. Okay. If we fail the inspection, they'll be back next year. Okay. So, the loophole Sorry, go ahead.

The loophole is is that they're not inspecting too. They're randomly picking. They're random. Yes. Yeah. Under our total units, right? And under our ordinance, technically it's all units within a year, right? That's where the 20,000 19,800 come. That would be annually. Every three years.

Oh, you're right. You're correct. Every three years. I know that this is these are older units and the upkeep and things like that and and the tenants of course. How do we usually fare when we have regular bud inspections in terms of the score? Our last inspection I think was a 70 78. Okay. So is that passing? That is passing. That is pass.

It's passing. Yeah. I'm certainly, you know, and I don't think we even, oh, I don't think we really discussed housing units, you know, and the extra cost to, you know, in terms of inspection. So, this is something for consideration and I think leaving it to the two of you to come up with a plan of action, so to speak, is uh is going to be very much needed. and I am favorable, but thank you for bringing this to our attention.

And we did mention that when this was put in place that we were not at the table because I think ultimately we do have the most units in the precise in in the city of El,000 of your budget is a lot and I would like to see that money go back into the infrastructure um paying for housing.

Thank you, Mary. Um thank you, Housewoman Davis. Um, I I would also like to piggy back off of what she said. I think this is one of the pain points that we didn't um necessarily factor in when we were going through the rental certification process. Um there's limitations in the Albian Houses Commission's ability to raise rent unlike um the private sector where they pass on any additional cost to the tenants whereas they're limited and they can't do that. Um so I definitely appreciate us having this conversation, Doug. I appreciate you um taking the time out to give this some consideration and some actual thought because this is something that we happen to overlook during the planning process of the rental certification um as a as a whole. So like I said again, this is one of those pain points that we just bumped up against and hopefully we can uh resolve this issue in in a good way that's beneficial to the city and the residents as well.

Okay. So, it it's our intent Ann and I will work on some sample language. We will give it pass it on to Colin. Um, obviously with Elizabeth Lumis, our code enforcement officer, we need her input just as much as if not everybody's. Um, and so we'll take everybody's um opinions and try to blend ordinance for your review.

Okay. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve ordinance 2026 one chapter 42 article 6

support? So, the version of this ordinance that you should be looking at is the one that was placed on your um on your desk for tonight. There were changes that were requested uh by the finance department after we had already submitted for the packet publication. Um this amends the existing adult use marijuana ordinance. Um we've had some issues come up with these facilities lately. Um issues that are basically necessitating greater oversight. Um one example in particular is uh public safety was called to a facility uh for an issue unrelated to their licensing, but when they were there they discovered that they haven't had a municipal license in almost a year. Um and yet they were operating. And then I was I was speaking with the clerk. It's it's amazing some of these facilities kind of play dumb like oh you didn't know and it's like you knew you know every year you're supposed to do this. So in the first uh section in 2220 I'm sorry section 226 we dispelled out very clearly right at the top a marijuana establishment shall not operate in the city without a valid municipal license. Um so that there's no question about um that was the only change we made to that section in section 227 on page seven. Um one of the other issues that that has come up is um many of these facilities are operating but they're not registering with the income tax department to do employee withholding. And so now we've made that a requirement. uh number eight that they provide proof that they registered

um the establishment of the city's income tax department. So now they'll do they'll be required to do their withholding for their employees and all the filings that accompany that requirement. Um lastly is section 244. Um, and this was uh language that we adapted from uh another municipality that basically says as a condition of getting their municipal license or that they're leasing the property to have a marijuana establishment constitutes consent by the applicant and all the employees, managers and owners, etc., etc. to permit the city to conduct routine inspections of the facility to ensure compliance with this ordinance. any other applicable law or regulation and it includes things such as checking their security cameras for the recordings and things like that. Um the purpose behind that one is we had another facility earlier this year and it was actually not discovered by us. It was discovered by an inspection by the cannabis regulatory agency that people were actually living in one of the grow operations. And um when I spoke to the CRA inspector, aside from people living there, the conditions in the facility were so atrocious, they had um drop ceiling tiles that were in there, and everyone's familiar with drop ceiling tiles. They're just a standard kind of whitish gray ceiling tiles. These things were jet black from black and gold. I mean, it was just it was disgusting. And so, um this just gives the city, uh greater oversight. Um the process that we've set up is if we find out that they're operating without a valid municipal license and then they're deemed to be a public nuisance and we'll give them a notice that they need to cease and assist operations until um they acquire a municipal license and if

they refuse to comply. Um, and by the way, we serve that on notice by first class mail and by either posting or personal service. And if they fail to comply, um, we can essentially shutter the establishment until we are. Yes.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, attorney, were were these examples that you brought up to us this evening were they found through regulatory inspections or they found through law enforcement intervention? So the one I was just um discussing with the black mold and the people that were living in there was a routine inspection by the cannabis regulatory agency and they brought it to our attention and after they brought it to our attention we took steps to revoke their local licenses. We um so the clerk and I and the attorney for the facility had an administrative hearing where we revoked their local licenses. The more recent one where they were operating without a license was discovered as a result of a call for service to the public safety department. I can't tell you what the what the basis for the call for service was. Chief FIPS might be able to tell you, but

civil issue. Oh, amongst the parties involved. So, it wasn't specific to their license, but when they were there, they discovered they hadn't had a license since I think December of 24. Yep. So we got dispatched there for a civil issue and then once we're there I was there other officers were there. Detective Lazarus was there and we all looked at each other was like I don't even think this place is registered

and we looked on the wall and saw the certificate and then realized the expiration date was well over a year. So that's how that came about. Um but we certainly appreciate the we're trying hard to on this because this is a lot of um a lot of people involved in this business. there's just too many hands in the jar and everybody ends up pointing the finger at everybody else um blaming the pointing fingers putting responsibility in everywhere else and nobody's um having to answer to any of the laws that are on the books or you know just like in any other um crime we deal with they just they spend more time trying to find the loopholes than they do just going through the proper channels. So, but yeah, it was a civil issue that we got dispatched to and then we made did what we had to do.

Okay. What what department on the municipal level is responsible for the inspecting and for saying the regulations set forth by the municipality? So when they send in an application, it goes through a departmental review of public safety, finance, my office, uh I think code enforcement to a certain extent and then it's already they already have to have pre-qualification from CRA. In terms of actual inspections of the physical facility, it's pretty much complaint based unless we see something in the materials that gives us a red flag to do inspection.

We have to do an initial one. Our department does personally. When somebody opens, we have to physically inspect it ourselves. But there must have been obviously some significant length of time between the inspection of this place with the black hole, for example, and the time that was discovered. Right. Um and one of my concerns is that these aren't barber shops, flower shops, controlled substances, right? So I I think it's very important for us to really take the jaest eye at the oversight at least in our city just to make sure that you know the health of our community not from a just a safety standpoint but certainly from the product since these are right

which they are an industrial park which I believe we designated that specific area for it. They're in an overlay district. We created overlay districts for the facilities and basically the there's one overlay district and it's basically the entirety of the industrial park. So in there unless unless you know it's there you could drive by and not know that it's a growth facility. Well, the city knows the city. Yes. We need to make sure we're on top of it so that we don't have facilities like that. I think we're going to have them they need to be clean uh you know held up to high standards. size.

Well, and and so the enforcement provision that we're adding here gives all the city departments um the ability to do more inspections basically as the city deems appropriate and take additional enforcement actions. So if if we even have a suspicion that something's going on, we can go in as a condition of memorable license and inspect and if we discover something, you know, we can bring it into compliance. In the case that we're just we're just talking about I mean what the action we took is central an immediate cease and desist letter told them they needed to stop operating until they obtained a valid municipal license and I I notified the cannabis regulatory agency who informed me that they had also let their state license and were in the process of getting their state license for new. So, um, but Chief Pips is right. A lot of these facil facilities spend more time trying to skirt the requirements than than just, you know, giving us what we need. So, but I think this ordinance goes a long way to to put us in a better position to address those issues.

Thanks. Yes. How many facilities have facilities or licenses operating? I guess only one that's currently operating. Do you have the one we disc

and we have what's the difference between license and the facility? So a facility can have multiple licenses. So number one they can have um multiple grow licenses in the same location. They generally this facility has a grow license and processor license. Um under the current ordinance for adult use we only allow growers and processor stop in the city. We don't allow any of the other facilities like secure transporters or retailers or anything like that.

There's a lot of steps to it. But yeah, I think across the state, everybody's learning, you know, as we go. Since this was so recently done, the industry is contracting a little bit. I mean, it was contracting, I think, just because of um oversaturation of facilities. It's probably going to contract even more because the excise tax was just upheld. So, it's going to have another 20 plus% 24%

24% excise tax on top of it. So, I mean, my concern is um you know, like the facility we're talking about here, I mean, you know, we're dealing with we we want verification that we got insurance and you know, we've already gone through three rounds of emails, moved between my office and the clerk's office at the facility. Like, city needs to be an additional insured. Here you go. Nope, you still don't have it right. Here you go. Nope. Still not on there. You know, it's just round and round we go. So, but like I said, I think this ordinance gives us more oversight. It allows public safety, code enforcement to go in and look at what they need to look at because I I share Councilman Frost's concerns about, you know, it's it's about protection of the public whether whether we're talking about, you know, people living in this facility or people using product. Either way, it needs to be above board.

Any questions for either hardness or achieve this? Council member, yes. Ros, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And mayor, yes. Any council? Resolution from the council. Anything else? Any other items?

Public comments. If there's anybody in the gallery that would like to stand in the dur council, you may lead the record at this time. Just come forth. That was your name, address. Um, so KDER 1211 Edward Street. It's so nice to be here to be able to speak into the light and for the people at home to listen and for us there are in the audience to hear what is being said. So it's really nice. I just want to make people aware of a couple of things that are going on. Tomorrow night at the museum between 5 and 7 we have the sixth night 12 night that's on the 6 12 night celebration. So there will be um that punch that won't punch and sweets and the choir bell choir from the first Presbyterian church in Homer will have a performance at 6. So, I just encourage people to go and and enjoy the evening and the last day of the Christmas season. Also, as you know, might not know, but it's just a little reminder. We have men who cook coming up already thinking about it February 8th. So, we'll be sending out the emails for the men that that want to cook and we'll have tickets and it's just a big community event for everybody to enjoy. And um thank you to the city for all the work that they're doing with the the streets and uh decorations taking them down and especially when you have to work in such extreme conditions. It's it's awesome. I mean I feel for them but we appreciate what they

Yes. And yes, she did beat me to it. Absolutely. I know. So, she was quick to the trigger, wouldn't she? Absolutely. Well, council members, madame mayor, inter city manager Terry, clerk Domingo, attorney Harkness, people watching and people in the gallery, good evening, Gary Tomkins, your county commissioner. Happy New Year everybody. Great to see each and every one of you. I'm already at 1 minute 11 seconds. Man, it's tough right now. You got me already on that talk.

Yeah, exactly. Uh great to see each one of you. Uh just a couple things on the county I want to talk to you about. First and foremost, we did schedule our organization meeting for January 15th. Uh we will be electing a vice chair at that at that meeting. Uh the vice chair goes on one year intervals. Our our chairman is a two-year interval. So there'll just be one uh vice chair election to be had. Uh please come over and see us on January 15th. We'd love to have you. We have lots of fun. Kind of, I guess, if you will. Uh but it's a great time. And there's a couple of things I want to talk to you about. First and foremost, um, recently we approved the reappoint of Vivian Davis to the county board of public health. And Vivian, you also assumed the position of vice chair, did you not? January 1st. Congratulations. Absolutely. Uh, we also reappointed Al Smith to the county veterans affair committee. And finally, we appointed Greg reappointed Greg Strand to the county parks and recreation committee. And the reason why I emphasize those is because it's wonderful the fact that we have residents on the east side of Ken County, specifically in the seventh district that are participate participatory in those committees because we essentially have yet another layer of a voice to be had, which is great because the county is is vast certainly and we we're always trying to fight the west side, if you will, to have more voice, right? Uh and it's just great to see residents out and uh encourage anybody that wants to become involved uh to take a look at those vacancies that are available on the boards and committees because it is a great way to really have an influence and effect on uh a multitude of things. And certainly you you have a lot of power in terms of recommending things to the county board of commission as we look at final uh decisions to be made. So thank you all for that first and foremost. Real quickly, I want to take the opportunity to and wish Annie French a happy birthday. Happy birthday, Mr. French. I take that opportunity. You didn't see you just I forget. I don't forget. I don't forget. Absolutely. Um and then also too real quickly to the uh to the new public safety officer, congratulations, sir. We certainly appreciate it uh for your willingness to

serve and protect and uh it really truly is appreciated. Thank you very much. Um and then real quickly, for those of you that don't get my newsletter, you got to get my newsletter because I updated it and it's looking better than ever. Exactly. It's more clear. It's more readable. I don't got my my face on every page, which is always good. I had somebody tell me that you got to take your face off every page. So, I did still small.

Yeah, exactly. I know. I'm working on it. Uh, but in the newsletter, it it gives you an opportunity to know what's going on in our district here in the seventh district as well as county. Um, take an opportunity to do that because I really feel as somebody who represents each and every one of you, I want to make sure that you're getting the most and best information that's possible. I'll give it to you straight up and you guys can make your own decisions and plus that gives you an opportunity. You have my email and my phone number and you can call me and yell at me if you'd like to. So, I'm always willing to do that too as well. So, um but no, it is great to be back to see you folks. 2025 has been full of family and trying to get everything arranged back kind of getting back into the swing of things in 2026. I'm looking for a great year. So, with that being said, unless there's any questions or comments, happy new year everybody. It's great to see you folks again and look forward to to seeing you around again. All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Good evening everyone. Ronnie Sim 710 West Erie Street here in Albian. I just wanted to say happy new year to everyone and uh it is great to be back in the chamber. I went to the high school tonight so that they're not here. I'm going down. So anyway, um just wanted to remind everyone or let everyone else know who um that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. community dinner will be held on the 16th of this month. Uh let me make sure that it's correct. And it's going to be on the 19th, January 19th at the Opportunity High School. Uh the doors will open up at 5:30. There will be booths and information and then dinner and then there'll be a program. So, everyone is invited. The next week on the 26th, uh the Alvin College will be having uh the convocation and that will be at the Bone Theater. That will be held at 7:00 p.m. Uh the speaker that they're inviting, they will have a little reception like an hour before that, but everyone else is invited also for the album. um a convocation that's being sponsored by Alb College. Thank you. Anybody else stand and address council? Seeing no movement. Uh city management real quick.

Yes. Madame Mayor. First of all, I'd like to have director Kern Happy. Go ahead. Some music council meeting. Happy news. That should be interesting. Yeah. So, uh I'm going to kind of expound on give you an update that won't sent you all

about our plow trucks. Uh we have four large plow trucks for the city. Two of them have salters on the back. Those two, they have the salters on the back. Military trucks that we got through public safety through the military program that we got for free. So, not so free anymore. One of them had to be towed from Albian College where it broke down to TNA Diesel. Um, and today the owner of TNA Diesel pronounced it. Um it's she's she's gone. So

we also had another orange plow truck go down uh New Year's Day. So three out of four plow trucks were gone. So I got a hold of the county and the state and told them kind of where we were at. So they are willing to help out as much as they can. Um, last Tuesday we were at the Outfitters facility in Grand Rapids because we have our two plow trucks that we ordered back in July of 24 are about four weeks out before they're ready to hit the road.

That's what would be awesome for any snow or ice. Uh, so however, those are just plow trucks, not salt trucks. Uh, and so I've done a lot of research into switching over to a liquid deicer. A lot of municipalities are going to it. And the reason they're going slow is because they've invested so much in regular rock salt because the equipment's a little bit cheaper, but they're slowly starting to put in the liquid deicer and mixing it in with their regular rock salt. And eventually, everyone's going to start going to liquid deicing because it's a lot cheaper and it's a lot safer for the community, a lot better for the environment. One teaspoon of salt contaminates five gallons of water. And so when all of our snow and ice melts, it goes right into the storage drains and it goes directly to the river. But this has been a practice that everybody's been doing across the country for decades. Um, so we're at that sweet spot right now where we're looking our salter units. The two are 11 about 11 years old. They're old technology and discontinued. They operate off hydraulics. All the new ones are electric. Our So, our equipment is slowly, it's already at that sweet spot where you either have to go one way or the other. Um, in talking over with city manager Terry, we're going to start going for liquid deicing. I can save roughly about 70% my cost just purchasing the salt by switching to liquid deicing. Also, with an additive, it'll be effective all the way down to about 20° below zero. So, from -20 all the way to 32, this stuff will still work. So, it's better that it's safer on the environment. It lasts a lot longer. We can make the our own formula right in house with the equipment that we're looking to get. And so, I can also take the units that slide in

the back of the trucks and transfer them to whatever truck I want. And so I'm going to get one unit right now and then I'm going to look to get a second unit later on in the year before the next season to replace and get rid of the salt as much as possible. This will be kind of like a two, threeear plan where I'll get rid of everything completely. Other states like Minnesota, Wisconsin, there are municipalities that have completely they have no salt whatsoever other than what to make their formula with and they've been operating that way for over 10 years. So, I just want to give you an update. I have one plow truck, one salt truck that the crew was able to get back up and running on Friday. And so, I have one big salt truck that has a plow on the bottom. That's one of the military trucks. I have one orange plow truck that doesn't have anything in the back of it. I then have a smaller one ton pickup style dump truck that has a brand new salter on it that's a much smaller unit but can also be used on roadways. So for right now I can kind of limp along when it comes to deicing. When it comes to snow removal on the big streets I'm going to be slow. I've only got two trucks on a fort. And so until I can get that third dump truck back up and running, which hopefully they don't give you bad news because I had an engine failure as well. I was burning a c of oil every 4.2 miles and it just happened like instantly. So, okay, it's not bad, but that's not uh that's not really good. So that's where we're at. Two plow trucks out of four. One's a salt truck, the other one's not. So,

and the two trucks that we have waiting for us, those are just piling myself. Correct. Correct. But with this new system, I can easily slide it in because there's the only wires I have to hook up hook up are positive and negative. The rest of it, all the controls are the Bluetooth that run off a smartphone or a tablet inside the truck. So, the apparatus to put the liquid Yep. can be switched into any truck. But how much would that cost?

24,000. The regular salter itself is about 13 to 15,000. Thank you. Thank you, director. So, what is in this liquid mixture?

Salt. That's the number one thing. 23% salt. The rest of it's just water. And then there's an additive that helps it go below the 10 10 degree mark that lets it keep going and stay active to a negative 20. That's about a 9010 ratio. So, for every 90 gallons of solution, we make 10 gallons of that would be the uh the additive with it. You know what that additive? I'm not too familiar with additive yet what it is. I'm just getting there. I know suspicious, but I know it's a calcium based uh additive, but I don't know Yeah. exactly what it is just yet. It's a liquid form,

but it's environmentally friendly. Correct. Correct. It's way more friendly than what we're doing now. Some some pies are using an additive using organic like beet juice.

Just don't something that is longlasting but still has a pH that allows that when on contact it will interact with the ice and melt it. So meat juice I know has come into the picture as of late. We also use it in our um to weight our tires down in our front loader and back hole just to give it that additional weight. So again, um we're not going to ever add anything that's going to be long-term calcium.

Let's keep finger crossed. We don't have the next 10 days. Yes. Jason before council you just two things that I want you to just 30 seconds brief on the heating system and some of the problems that you've encountered with this building. Yes. The second thing is the IQ system that we're working on.

Okay. Uh the boiler system. There were several leaks throughout the whole system downstairs in the basement. I had a company go through it and it is they are a very good company and we use them quite a bit on a lot of our projects and they ended up calling timeout and just said look this is going to be way above us because the system is bigger. This is more of a industrial grade style boiler system. There's commercial then there's like an industrial like the size of being a school. We are right on the cusp of what would be like in a school or a large bigger facility than just city hall. There's also some things going on where we need to get back on a preventive maintenance program. We haven't had that in the last few years. And so we have some valves that we think are maybe sticking, not activating like they're supposed to because there's so many offices that have this office is cold, this office is hot as can be, this one's so self. And so we've replaced several parts that were broken, but it's been chasing a ghost throughout the whole system. So tomorrow I have a a company out of Battle Creek that's coming in

that does large scale um facilities like the VA. They're working currently on the VA. So they do all their boiler systems. They're going to come in tomorrow and or Wednesday and just go through it and fix it once and for all. Uh we had water pouring up all over the basement floor twice. Uh they're here on New Year's or Christmas Eve. They're there the Saturday after Christmas. Uh it's just been a nightmare. So that's why it's a little chilly in here. So uh and then the IT, we're working with different IT companies, myself and the city manager, Terry, trying to find a good fit for what we're doing and try to save us some money. our our experience has been so so with the current company, but we're working to try to upgrade everything uh as best we can.

Any questions for director K? Just want to thank you for and your staff for all the hard work and stuff that you're We have a great team. We really do and much appreciate. Yeah. Thank you. Council member comments council just quickly here

just wanted to go over our fund balance and our there and our general fund. uh just for a short fivey year history. Mr. French sent me an email and wanted three years, but I thought I'd give you five.

So when we look at this report, um I started back I think in 21 And this basically shows our ending year fund balance. And we want to take a look at this because uh we want to make sure that we have fund balance at least for two or three months of expenses in case we run into a problem. That's kind of the standard. And so when you look at this uh the first number uh I'm on the first column um shows the fund balance and then the second number after that for 2021 shows the expenses for the general fund. So if we take the fund balance and divide it by the expenses, we get a percentage of our fund balance coverage for expenses. So that's well over two or three months which is over the standard. And I also showed a number uh subtracting out the transfers out because the transfers out are sometimes just a onetime thing. So it gives you an idea of what the actual expenses are for the for the various departments for the last number there. So that percentage goes up just a little bit higher. So when you look at 21, 22 is really the same kind of format and 23 and 24, those are all on actual numbers because they're history numbers. So those years are over and done with, but it shows what our fund balance percentage is and they're all very positive. Uh which is a good sign. uh the auditor uh the auditor usually wants to look for 15 to 20% coverage uh but we're well over that and then the final column of course is the year is just over so I put the numbers together

based on the uh expected amended budget that we approved for our projected numbers and you really won't know what that's going to be maybe for another month or two after everything comes in for the year end but I just wanted to kind of point out that general fund. Even though we have a lot of stuff going on and sometimes a general fund has to help out with transfers uh to other funds, um we're still in pretty good uh positive position there. And I think what I'll do going forward is I will start showing um I will use this report, but I'll add one more column for every month in 2026 so we can see how we're doing month by month by month. Thank you.

Yeah, this was this was this is in my mind a great barometer of our health, right? And so we knew we had a lot of expenses this year. So my concern was and we see a little bit of a hit. Um but we were so high last year we're back in the 35 or so 35%. That's kind of a nice sweet spot to be covers that catastrophic like we did this year, right? And uh but then they fund balance. So if we have another, you know, like trucks um we'll be able to help. Yeah. And um when you look at the budget amounts in the yellow column there, that big transfer out again was to help out the store fund,

right, for those two big projects. Um that I think one's complete, but we're still in the middle of one more. So that was kind of a one time thing, but we're still Yeah, we're still pretty good. That's right. You're welcome. Any questions for Dr. Clark? Good job.

All right. Council comments. I would just like to reiterate that I'm happy to be back in council chambers. You know, I'm looking forward to the year of 2026 working in collaboration with all of you and all of our nonprofits that we have in the community. I anticipate we're going to have a lot more construction going on, um a lot more uh progress. So, I'm moving forward through our 256 today. Any other comments? No. Anybody? I don't remember hearing from J.

We didn't I just saw Facebook. Mayor. Yeah, I do know that he is still out of the country. Okay. Do I have a motion to excuse council member Stewart support? All in favor say I. I. Oppos. Motion to move. All in favor say I. I. Oppos. Meeting return to 8:18 p.m. Thank you all for coming.